LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

A 

NORTH  CAROLINIAN 

WITH  PROOF 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnnoOOcogg 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 
WITH  PROOF 


By  J.  C.  COGGINS,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Author  of 

'A  New  Philosophy  of  Life,"  "Christ's  Place  in  the  Old 
Testament,"  "The  Star-Crowned  Woman." 


Second  Edition;  Revised 

(Copyrighted  by  the  Author  1927) 


CAROLINA  PRINTING  CO.,  GASTONIA,  N.  C 


DEDICATION 

To   every  red-blooded  American  citizen,  who 
loves  the  same  old  flag  that  Lincoln  loved; 
Who  loves  and  supports  the  Constitution  as 
cheerfully  and  as  loyally  as  Lincoln  did; 
Who  stands  four-square  for  the  great  funda- 
mental principles  of  Democracy  and  who  de- 
sires to  know  the  real  truth  as  to  the  birth- 
place and  ancestry  of  this  great  American; 
whether  rich   or   poor,   high   or   low,   old   or 
young,  this  book  is  affectionately 
Inscribed 

J.  C.  COGGINS. 


- 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  I. 

Nancy  Hanks  a  Rutherford  County  Girl;  Solution  of  great 
mystery. 

Chapter  II. 

Some  of  Nancy's  associates  in  Rutherford  county. 

Chapter  III. 

This  story  corroborated  in  old  Records. 
Chapter  IV. 

Nancy's  banishment  and  trip  back  to  Rutherford  county. 
Chapter  V. 

Nancy  and  "Little  Abe"  sent  to  Kentucky. 
Chapter  VI. 

Nancy's  marriage  to  Thomas  Lincoln. 
Chapter  VII. 

The  political  condition  in  Rutherford  county  tends  to  sup- 
press facts. 

Chapter  VIII. 

Discussion  of  ancestry — Stories  and  newspaper  articles  con- 
taining proof  of  North  Carolina  ancestry  and  birth-place 

Chapter  IX. 

Identification  of  the  North  Carolina  Nancy  as  wife  of  Thomas 
Lincoln. 

Chapter  X. 

The  argument  of  consistency;  was  this  tradition  invented? 

Chapter  XI. 

The  Lincoln-Hanks  status  in  Kentucky;  dirt-floored  shanty, 
bed  of  leaves  and  skins;  Lincoln  himself  tells  secret. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS,  Continued 

Chapter  XII. 

The  Lincoln  "skeleton"  and  "cancer";  family  resemblance 
lacking. 

Chapter  XIII. 

Six  counties,  Gaston,  Rutherford,  Buncombe,  Haywood,  Jack' 
son  and  Swain  all  contribute  to  this  story. 

Chapter  XIV. 

Kentucky's  best  evidence  rejected  by  Prof.  Warren  to  force 
birth-place  of  Lincoln  within  bounds  of  that  state. 

Chapter  XV. 

Lincoln  on  Social  and  Political  Equality  of  the  Races  and 
other  speeches — His  Angels. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

1.  The  birth-place  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Rutherford 
County,  North  Carolina. 

2.  Camping  at  night  among  wild  animals. 

3.  The  oxwagon  caravan  leaving  Rutherford  County,  tak- 
ing Nancy  Hanks  to  the  mountains  with  the  Enloe 
family. 

4.  Meeting  the  wild  Indians. 

5.  The  terrible  fight  between  Abraham  Enloe,  father  of 
the  child,  and  Tom  Lincoln. 

6.  The  old  Rutherford  County  Jail. 

7.  Going  down  steep  places. 

8.  Tom  Lincoln  whips  little  "Abe;"  Nancy  interferes  and 
Tom  whips  Nancy. 

9.     The  old  Deed. 
10.     The  Gaston  County  monument  to  Nancy  Hanks. 


INTRODUCTION 

No  character  in  all  the  rich  catalogue  of  Ameri- 
can Statesmen  has  grown  with  such  compelling  in- 
terest, such  charm  and  splendor  as  the  years  pass 
on  as  does  that  of  our  first  martyred  President, 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

His  first  biographer  plainly  stated  that  Lincoln 
had  his  "skeleton"  and  an  "inside  cancer"  and  that 
"his  origin  was  in  that  unknown  and  sunless  bog  in 
which  history  never  made  a  foot-print."  (Herndon 
&  Weik,  Vol.  1,  page  7.) 

But  this  man  was  not  without  an  ancestry  and  a 
birth-place,  though  he  has  become  a  kind  of  human 
riddle,  an  enigma,  a  Sphinx,  a  Melchizedek. 

As  to  who  his  father  was  and  where  he  was  born 
are  questions  upon  which  people  are  yet  disagreed. 
Not  long  ago  I  listened  to  two  very  prominent 
city  doctors,  in  August,  Ga.,  discussing  the  ances- 
try of  Abraham  Lincoln.  One  claimed  that  he  was 
the  son  of  Jeff  Davis,  while  the  other  said  he  was 
the  son  of  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina.  I  said, 
"gentlemen,  you  are  both  wrong,  and  I  proceeded 
to  give  them  what  I  believe  to  be  the  real  truth  in 
regard  to  the  matter. 

This  story  furnishes  a  sane  and  logical  solution 
of  the  many  old  traditions,  running  like  the  roots 


of  a  great  tree,  back  over  a  century  to  the  original 
facts  as  they  took  shape  in  the  life  of  the  girl, 
Nancy  Hanks,  when  she  was  well  known  in  Ruther- 
ford county,  North  Carolina,  and  her  embarrassing 
situation  in  the  home  of  Abraham  Enloe  could  no 
longer  be  held  a  secret. 

This  author  feels  a  kind  of  justifiable  pride  in 
offering  to  the  public  this  second  edition  of,  "Ab- 
raham Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian ;"  especially  on 
account  of  the  very  interesting  stories,  supported 
by  old  documentary  evidence  discovered  in  Ruther- 
ford county  which  tends  to  prove  beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt  the  following  very  pertinent  facts  as  to 
the  "origin"  of  the  great  emancipator. 

1.  That  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  was  reared  to  womanhood  in  Rutherford 
County,  North  Carolina. 

2.  That  she  was  raised  in  the  well-to-do  family 
of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Abraham  Enloe,  on  Puzzle 
Creek,  a  short  distance  north  of  Forest  City  and 
about  two  miles  from  Highway  No.  20. 

3.  That  President  Lincoln  was  really  born  at 
this  place. 

4.  That  Nancy  and  her  child  were  afterwards 
taken  to  Kentucky  before  she  was  married  to 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  cared  for  in  the  home  of  a 
married  daughter  of  Enloe. 


Aside  from  significant  hints,  the  majority  of 
writers  steer  clear  of  these  North  Carolina  stories, 
disregarding  altogether  the  fact  that  Nancy  Hanks, 
Lincoln's  mother,  spent  nearly  all  of  her  life  in 
Rutherford  county,  prior  to  her  marriage  to  Tom 
Lincoln  in  1806.  This  author  claims  that  herein 
lies  the  secret  to  the  whole  matter;  and  it  is  our 
purpose  to  so  clarify  the  situation  that  people  will 
no  longer  be  in  darkness  or  doubt  as  to  his  pater- 
nity and  birth-place.  And  this  is  due  the  public,  if 
one  has  in  his  possession  the  real  facts  upon  which 
to  predicate  such  a  claim. 

J.  C.  Coggins. 


CERTIFICATE  FROM  PROFESSIONAL  AND 

BUSINESS  MEN  OF  RUTHERFORDTON, 

NORTH  CAROLINA. 

December  15,  1926. 

This  certifies  that  for  many  years  we,  the  under- 
signed have  heard  the  older  people  relate  the  cur- 
rent story  that  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  was  reared  in  Rutherford  County  and 
also  that  Lincoln  was  born  here. 

(Signed) 

M.  L.  Edwards Attorney-at-Law 

R.  S.  Eaves Attorney-at-Law 

(Judge)  D.  F.  Morrow Author,  "Then  and  Now" 

R.  E.  Price Editor  "The  News" 

C.  L.  Miller Banker,  Commercial  Bank 

J.  Y.  Yelton Clerk  Superior  Court 

J.  F.  Flack City  Clerk,  Rutherfordton 

0.  T.  Waldrop Hardware  merchant 

W.  A.  Thompson,  M.  D Physician 

Jno.  P.  Bean Recorder 

W.  C.  Hardin___ „ Sheriff 

W.  0.  Geer „ Register  of  Deeds 

J.  L.  Taylor Vice-Pres.  Citizen  Bank  &  Trust  Co. 

C.  F.  Gold,  M.  D Physician 

F.  W.  H.  Logan,  M.  D Physician 


J.  C  COGGINS,  Ph.  D.,  L  L.  D. 

Author 

Abraham  Lincoln  A  North  Carolinian 

Rutherfordton,  N.  C. 

As  a  Member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  North   Carolina 

1917-18 


CHAPTER  I. 

Nancy  Hanks  A  Rutherford  County  Girl — 
SOLUTION  OF  A  GREAT  MYSTERY. 


Recognizing  the  difficulty  of  our  task,  we  are 
asking  that  the  reader  follow  us  with  an  open  mind 
as  free  from  bias  or  prejudice  as  a  juryman  who 
has  taken  his  oath  to  listen  to  the  testimony  and 
render  his  verdict  according  to  the  evidence. 

The  writer  has  spent  much  time  during  the  past 
year  investigating  old  stories  in  Rutherford  Coun- 
ty, N.  C.  as  to  the  actual  birthplace  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  the  evidence  found  among  the  old  peo- 
ple has  completely  changed  our  former  views  of  this 
matter.  At  first  the  many  stories  were  passed  by 
with  little  concern.  But  finally  we  were  forced  to 
yield  to  the  overwhelming  testimony  offered. 

Those  who  have  read  a  copy  of  the  first  issue  of 
my  book  on  Lincoln  will  remember  that  I  pointed 
out  no  definite  location  as  the  birthplace  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln.  The  reason  for  this  omission  was  that 
I  yet  lacked  the  sufficient  data  to  clearly  establish 
this  very  important  fact.  I  had  forgotten  what 
Berry  H.  Melton  said  about  the  birthplace  till  my 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


memory  was  refreshed  by  hearing  these  stories — 
then  I  well  remembered  Puzzle  Creek  as  the  place. 

I  had  some  little  evidence  that  he  was  born  on 
Johnathan's  Creek  near  Waynesville,  N.  C,  but 
after  visiting  this  place  and  finding  two  very  old 
men  who  had  never  heard  of  such  a  tradition,  and 
did  not  believe  this  story,  I  gave  this  up. 

I  also  visited  Ocona  Lufta  and  found  old  people 
who  said  that  Nancy  was  sent  off  somewhere  from 
the  Enloe  home,  in  Swain  County,  and  that  he  was 
not  born  there. 

Having  learned  from  reliable  sources  that  Nancy 
Hanks,  the  mother  of  Lincoln,  went  from  Ruther- 
ford to  Swain  County  as  a  member  of  the  Abraham 
Enloe  family,  and  that  she  and  her  child  were 
transported  to  Kentucky  before  she  became  ac- 
quainted with  Thomas  Lincoln,  I  went  to  work  to 
solve  the  mystery  as  to  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
really  born.  And  I  have  been  very  fortunate,  I 
think,  for  I  have  found  the  place  beyond  any  reason- 
able doubt. 

Now  please  follow  this  story  and  see  how  the 
testimony  all  fits  into  one  great  chain  of  evidence. 

1.  I  know  of  no  fact  more  substantially  attested 
by  people  in  all  the  walks  of  life  than  the  fact  that 
Nancy  Hanks  was  reared  in  Rutherford  County, 
North  Carolina. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  3 

One  can  find  literally  hundreds  of  people  here, 
who  say  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  raised  in  this  coun- 
ty. Of  course  they  are  not  old  enough  to  know  this 
fact  of  their  own  personal  knowledge,  but  they  be- 
lieve what  their  fathers  and  grand-fathers  have  told 
them.  In  fact  I  am  persuaded  that  the  testimony  is 
just  as  strong  that  this  girl  spent  her  early  life  in 
Rutherford  County  as  it  is  that  she  is  the  mother 
of  her  illustrious  son.  One  can  deny  that  Nancy 
Hanks  was  ever  in  Kentucky  and  prove  it  just  as 
easily  as  one  can  disprove  the  accumulated  evidence 
that  this  homeless  mother  was  raised  in  North 
Carolina ! 

2.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the 
Presidency,  I  am  informed,  some  of  these  Ruther- 
ford county  people  were  anxious  to  find  out  whether 
he  was  the  son  of  the  Nancy  that  was  raised  here 
and  they  wrote  to  parties  in  Kentucky  to  learn  the 
facts;  and  these  people  received  a  letter  from  Ken- 
tucky, saying  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  same  Nancy 
Hanks  that  had  lived  in  Rutherford  County,  North 
Carolina.  (J.  B.  Martin,  Ex-Sheriff.) 

3.  Nancy  was  first  known,  in  the  community 
about  Rutherfordton  as  a  little  girl  going  about 
over  the  country  with  her  mother,  Lucy  Hanks,  who 
carried  a  little  spinning  wheel  under  her  arm  and 
spun  flax  for  a  living.     They  stayed  a  while  at 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


"Grannie"  Hollifield's  and  also  at  a  Mr.  Weber's. 
They  were  very  poor,  Dick  Hanks,  the  uncle  of 
Nancy,  was  supposed  to  provide  a  living  for  them ; 
but  he  was  a  drunkard  and  a  shiftless  sort  of  a 
fellow;  and  Lucy  Hanks  and  her  little  girls,  Nancy 
and  Manda,  were  thrown  upon  the  mercy  of  the 
community. 

The  people  were  very  kind  to  them  and  not  only 
gave  them  the  customary  price  for  work,  but  were 
glad  to  supplement  this  with  little  gifts  and  dona- 
tions which  were  likely  to  add  to  their  comfort  and 
happiness.  Going  into  a  community,  they  would 
make  their  home  with  one  family  until  they  had 
finished  their  work  in  that  community. 

4.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  18th  century,  Abra- 
ham, Ezekiel  and  Anthony  Enloe  moved  to  Ruther- 
ford County  from  York,  South  Carolina,  where  this 
old  Scotch  family  of  school  teachers  had  settled 
soon  after  coming  to  America. 

Abraham,  has  been  described  as  a  leader  in  his 
community.  He  was  tall,  over  six  feet,  of  large 
frame,  weighing  over  two  hundred  pounds,  dark 
skinned,  dark  hair  and  possessed  a  fund  of  anec- 
dotes and  was  a  very  superior  man  intellectually. 
He  became  a  large  land-owner,  in  this  county  as  the 
records  in  the  office  of  the  Register  of  Deeds  show. 
He  owned  as  many  as  nine  farms  or  tracts  of  land 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


in  Rutherford  County  comprising  several  hundred 
acres  of  land.  His  were  influential  friends  and  his 
girls  were  well  dressed — "wore  silks  and  were  'stuck- 
up's'  "  these  old  folks  say. 

If  Geologists  are  able  to  read  the  correct  history 
of  the  globe  by  means  of  the  fossil  remains  en- 
tombed within  its  bosom,  may  we  not  reasonably 
insist  that  there  is  a  great  strata  of  truth  lying 
embedded  in  this  well  established  story  of  the 
Rutherford  County  Nancy  Hanks  and  her  child  of 
Puzzle  Creek. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 


CHAPTER   II. 
NANCY'S  PLAYMATES  TELL  THE  STORY 


One  of  the  playmates  of  Nancy,  Berry  H.  Melton, 
furnished  this  author  with  the  information  that 
Lucy  Hanks,  mother  of  Nancy,  had  her  children 
"bound  out,"  on  account  of  extreme  poverty.  A 
man  by  the  name  of  Pratt  took  Manda  and  Abraham 
Enloe  took  Nancy.  Nancy  was  about  eight  or  ten 
years  old  when  she  was  placed  by  her  mother  in  the 
well-to-do  home  of  Mr.  Abraham  Enloe,  on  Puzzle 
Creek.  Here  she  remained,  more  as  a  member  of 
the  Enloe  family  than  a  hired  girl  as  some  would 
represent  the  situation.  She  was  an  attractive  lit- 
tle girl,  people  say.  She  was  bright  and  quick  to 
catch-on-to  the  ways  of  doing  things. 

When  she  grew  older  she  participated  in  the 
quiltings  and  dances  that  were  given  at  Mr.  Enloe's 
and  also  went  out  to  reputable  homes  to  dances  with 
Nancy  Hollifield  and  Polly  Price  and  Dick  Martin, 
the  grand-father  of  the  Ex-Sheriff  Martin  of 
Rutherford  County.  These  dances  were  usually 
after  a  corn  shucking  and  quilting  in  a  community. 

5.     The  old  home-site  where  Nancy  Hanks  lived 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


and  worked  as  a  member  of  the  Enloe  household  has 
recently  been  pointed  out  to  me  and  the  evidence 
is  of  such  character,  when  backed  up  by  the  docu- 
mentary evidence  found  in  the  office  of  the  Register 


CAMPING  AT  NIGHT  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

of  Deeds  for  Rutherford  County,  that  there  is  no 
question  as  to  the  truth  of  this  story.  Here  young 
Nancy  sang,  and  played  and  worked  with  the  other 
children  of  this  family  and  with  Nancy  Hollineld 
and  Polly  Price,  neighbors.  There  was  a  daughter 
in  this  family  by  the  name  of  Nancy,  who  was  just 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

about  the  same  age  of  this  adopted  daughter,  and 
they  were  company  for  each  other. 

These  girls  would  go  in  wading  and  swimming  to- 
gether down  under  the  hill,  below  where  the  old 
mill  now  stands ;  and  they  engaged  in  games  of  their 
day.  Nancy  was  blue  eyed,  dark  haired  and  slender. 

There  were  no  public  schools  then  for  children  to 
attend.  The  educational  advantages  were  just  about 
nil.  All  the  "book  learning"  that  was  accessible  was 
in  the  private  homes,  at  such  times  as  the  parents 
were  not  busy  looking  after  other  matters  which 
were  usually  considered  of  much  more  importance. 

The  nearest  church  to  which  Nancy  lived  was 
the  Baptist  Church,  called  Concord.  It  is  on  the 
road  to  Bostic.  Some  of  the  old  people  claim  that 
Nancy  was  a  member  of  the  church  there  and  that 
they  saw  her  there  with  her  child  just  a  short  while 
before  she  was  sent  to  Kentucky. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  the  people 
Who  claimed  to  have  seen  the  girl  Nancy  Hanks 
with  her  child,  at  different  times,  was  "Grannie" 
(Nancy)  Hollifield,  who  was  born  in  1794  and  died 
in  1900;  being  younger  than  Nancy  Hanks;  and 
Polly  Price  who  was  born  in  1790,  dying  in  1890, 
being  also  younger  than  Nancy  Hanks.  These  old 
people  and  others  were  raised  up  with  Nancy  Hanks 
and  knew  her  as  well  as  they  knew  their  own  folks. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


and  they  tell  a  story  that  will  stand  the  most  crucial 
test.  Many  good  citizens,  some  of  the  best  the 
country  affords  have  been  thrilled  with  the  stories 
of  these  and  other  old  people  about  Nancy  and  her 
boy. 

After  Abraham  Lincoln  became  President  of  the 
United  States,  these  old  ladies  would  often  speak 
of  having  held  this  President  upon  their  knees  when 
he  was  a  baby.  And  their  story  strange  as  it  is,  is 
very  strongly  supported  by  good  evidence.  These 
people  would  not  have  told  this  story  had  it  not 
been  true.  For  it  certainly  was  anything  but  pop- 
ular in  this  part  of  the  country.  In  fact  to  have  told 
such  stories  they  must  be  founded  deeply  in  real 
facts.  To  have  manufactured  such  would  have  been 
dangerous. 

6.  The  old  stone  wall  of  the  basement  of  the 
house  where  Abraham  Enloe  lived  and  where  Nancy 
Hanks  was  raised  may  yet  be  seen  on  the  crest  of 
a  beautiful  hill  out  on  "Puzzle  Creek,"  a  mile  north 
of  Bostic  Station. 

Some  staunch  Republicans,  Rev.  Drew  Rollins 
and  others,  living  in  this  community  forty  years  ago 
begged  for  some  of  the  rocks  in  this  old  basement 
to  use  in  places  about  their  homes,  because  they  said 
their  fathers  told  them  that  Lincoln  was  born  here. 
And  the  father  of  Mr.  Preston  Bostic,  the  present 


10  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

owner  of  the  place,  has  recently  refused  to  let  peo- 
ple carry  away  these  foundation  rocks. 

"Lincoln  Hill"  the  Birthplace. 

7.  The  location  where  this  old  rock  basement 
is  seen,  goes  by  the  name  of  "Lincoln  Hill,"  and  it 
has  borne  this  name  so  far  back  that  the  very 
old  people  can  not  remember  when  this  place  was 
thus  christened.  As  Blackstone  says,  it  was  so  far 
back  that  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  to  the 
contrary.  The  name  of  this  hill  is  very  significant, 
especially  in  view  of  the  tradition  that  President 
Lincoln  was  born  at  this  place. 

The  people  have  thus  unconsciously  erected  a 
lasting  monument  here  in  Rutherford  county  to  the 
birthplace  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  11 


CHAPTER  III. 

Story  Corroborated  By  Old  Records  Recently  Dis- 
covered in  the  Court  House  at  Rutherfordton. 


As  a  dernier  resort,  historians  are  beginning  to 
take  the  position  that  the  North  Carolina  tradition 
can  not  possibly  be  true  because,  they  say,  Abraham 
Enloe  was  not  old  enough  to  be  the  father  of  a 
child  when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born. 

1.  Aside  from,  and  in  addition  to  the  very  strong 
evidence  in  support  of  these  North  Carolina  stories, 
furnished  in  another  part  of  this  book,  I  have  made 
a  personal  investigation  of  the  old  records  in  the 
Court  House  in  Rutherford  County,  North  Carolina 
and  have  found  documentary  evidence  which  cor- 
roborates our  claims!  There  is  positive  proof  that 
this  Enloe  referred  to  as  not  being  old  enough  to 
have  been  the  father  of  Lincoln  was  not  the  Enloe 
of  North  Carolina.  Our  Enloe  was  one  of  the  big 
land-owners  of  this  County,  when  Nancy  Hanks  was 
a  little  girl! 

In  Book  M-Q  there  appears  a  record  where  Abra- 
ham Enloe  of  North  Carolina  bought  land  in  1790. 
This  is  found  on  page  305,  and  the  amount  of  land 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

is  300  acres.  Again  he  bought  another  tract  in 
1790  as  seen  in  Book  M-Q,  page  304.  Also  a  tract 
from  Congressman,  Felix  Walker  on  Second  Broad 
River  in  1797.     (Book  12-13-13,  page  304). 

We  have  a  record  of  his  land  sales  as  follows: 

1.  To  Wm.  Wallace  in  1798,  Book  10-11,  page  96. 

2.  To  Joseph  Carpenter  in   1799,  Book  10-11, 
page  447. 

3.  To  Solomon  Groce  in  1801,  Book  15-17,  page 
131. 

4.  To  Abner  Yomack,  in  1807,  Book  24-26, 
page  90. 

5.  To  Gloud  Loung,  in  1809,  Book  24-26, 
page  323. 

6.  To  Robet.  Smith,  in  1812,  Book  24-26,  page 
653. 

7.  To  John  Porter,  in  1814,  Book  27-28,  page 
114. 

8.  To  Mark  Bird,  in  1807,  Book  29-31,  page  115. 

We  have  just  found  records  where  Abraham  En- 
loe  purchased  twelve  different  tracts  of  land  in 
Rutherford   County.     This   record   completely  dis- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 13 

proves  the  recent  unsupported  statement  that  "this 
man  Enloe  was  only  a  small  boy  when  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  born."  (Barton  and  Warren). 

Moreover  this  record  corroborates  the  other 
stories  that  Enloe  lived  on  Puzzle  Creek,  for  here 
is  a  record  of  his  sale  to  Mark  Bird  in  1807  of  a 
tract  of  land  at  this  place,  naming  this  creek  in  the 
deed  in  Book  29-31,  at  page  115. 

According  to  the  records,  Enloe  sold  the  home- 
place  on  Puzzle  Creek  in  1807.  This  is  some  time 
after  he  had  moved  to  the  mountains,  which  occur- 
red about  1803-1805,  and  a  year  after  Nancy  Hanks 
was  married  to  Thomas  Lincoln  in  Kentucky.  For 
he  went  to  Swain  County  between  1803  and  1805, 
taking  Nancy  Hanks  along  as  a  member  of  his  large 
family.  He  had  a  grown  daughter  named  Nancy, 
who  ran  off  and  married  a  man  from  Kentucky  by 
the  name  of  Thompson. 

Now  since  this  running  off  and  marrying  took 
place  not  a  very  great  while  from  the  time  that 
Lincoln  was  born;  and  since  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy  Hanks  were  married  June  the  12th,  1806, 
this  Enloe  was  evidently  a  man  of  mature  years, 
instead  of  "only  a  small  boy!"  There  were  nine 
sons  and  six  daughters  in  Abraham  Enloe's  family 


14 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

and  there  may  have  been  several  children  who  were 
older  than  the  girl  that  ran  off  and  got  married  to 
the  Kentuckian.  Enloe  was  old  enough  to  have  been 
Nancy  Hank's  father. 

2.  The  family  record,  found  in  the  old  Lincoln 
Bible,  is  also  offered  as  proof  to  offset  these  North 
Carolina  claims.  But  the  record  as  it  appears  is 
not  above  criticism.  And  the  notations  thus  made 
in  Bibles  are  not  always  correct,  because  those  who 
write  them  are  not  immune  to  mistakes. 

3.  If  this  record  was  written  by  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, it  was  done  in  his  mature  years.  This  record 
strangely  furnishes  a  very  complete  account  of  the 
genealogy  of  Lincoln's  step-mother  who  was  first 
a  Bush,  then  a  Johnston  and  then  Lincoln. 

It  is  so  full  of  Johnstons  and  so  little  of  the 
Hankses  that  one  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
some  real  valuable  information  was  hidden,  or 
greatly  obscured  by  the  presence  and  influence  of 
the  old  lady,  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Thomas  Lincoln's  widow. 

This  old  lady,  however,  had  this  record  fixed  up 
for  her  benefit.  There  was  no  thought  of  any  in- 
vestigation of  the  matter.  She  stood  by  and  doubt- 
less dictated  the  whole  thing  just  as  she  wished  it 
to  appear  for  her  folks  and  her  friends  to  see. 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  former  wife,  Nancy,  had 
died.  A  wonderful  change  had  taken  place  in  the 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  15 

life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  on  account  of  cruel 
treatment  had  fled  from  Thomas  Lincoln's  dirt- 
floored  shanty  at  the  age  of  nine  years.  He  has 
probably  been  in  Congress  as  well  as  in  the  State 
Legislature.  Now,  she  will  be  glad  to  have  the 
record  include  him  as  a  son  of  Thomas  Lincoln. 

This  woman  could  have  told  more  when  the  first 
biographers  of  Lincoln  called  to  see  her  when  they 
were  trying  to  get  up  all  the  data  they  could  about 
Lincoln.  She  was  very  free  to  talk  about  her 
people,  but  when  it  came  to  telling  about  Nancy 
Hanks,  her  husband's  first  wife,  "she  became  pain- 
fully reticent  and  mum."  She  probably  was  some- 
what embarrassed,  thinking  that  she  would  be  asked 
if  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  before  her  hus- 
band was  married  to  Nancy  Hanks,  and  if  his  real 
father  was  not  Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Carolina! 
Anyway,  she  balked  and  refused  to  talk. 

4.  If  this  record  was  written  by  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, he  probably  made  his  step-mother  a  present 
of  this  Bible  about  the  time  he  became  President, 
and  in  view  of  the  circumstances,  he  could  not  be 
expected  to  say  in  this  record,  that  he  was  born  a 
little  too  early  to  be  the  illustrious  son  of  her  la- 
mented husband,  which  he  evidently  did  not  believe 
he  was.  And  he  would  doubtless  put  down  her 
daughter,  Sarah's  name,  without  saying  that  she 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

was  his  half  sister.  In  fact  he  would  hardly  be  so 
impolitic  as  to  tell  the  public  his  secret  story  of 
grief  on  the  page  of  his  step-mother's  family  Bible. 
It  was  just  like  his  great  heart  to  draw  the  veil 
of  charity  and  hide  the  family  "skeleton"  and  "in- 
side cancer"  with  the  screen  of  this  family  record. 
For  this  same  reason,  he  confided  to  Mr.  Scripps,  a 
Chicago  publisher,  the  secret  of  his  true  ancestry, 
and  requested  that  it  be  kept  as  confidential  matter. 
(Herndon  &  Weik's  Lincoln,  page  2).  How  would 
any  sane  man  interpret  such  procedure  in  the  light 
of  the  persistent  rumors  and  stjories  connecting 
Lincoln  with  a  North  Carolina  ancestry,  where 
Nancy  was  raised  and  from  where  she  was  sent  to 
Kentucky  with  a  baby  in  her  arms? 

5.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  reasonable  supposi- 
tion, that  Enloe  had  a  reason  for  moving  across  the 
mountains  to  live  in  a  wilderness,  other  than  simply 
the  lure  of  the  wild.  It  is  entirely  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary that  a  man  as  well  fixed  as  he  was,  a  real 
Landlord,  the  owner  of  nine  farms  in  a  good 
country,  should  pull  up  and  move  to  a  wilderness. 

6.  The  people  who  joined  in  this  caravan  of 
primitive  ox-wagons  from  Puzzle  Creek  settlement, 
attest  the  fact  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  along  in  the 
Enloe  party  when  they  went  to  carve  out  a  new 
destiny  in  an  unbroken  wilderness,  walled  in  by  big 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


17 


mountains.  They  were  all  friends  and  neighbors, 
four  companies,  going  away  together  from  their 
homes  and  people  in  Rutherford  County. 

They  carried  with  them  enough  provisions  to  last 
at  least  one  year;  and  the  woods  were  full  of  game 
of  all  kinds,  while  the  crystal  waters  abounded  with 
fish. 


Nancy  Hanks  is  with  the  Enloes,  followed  by  other  fam- 
ilies in  the  ox-wagon  caravan  passing  up  through  the  Chim- 
ney Rock  (N.  C.)  Gorge,  following  an  old  Indian  trail. 
These  were  the  first  wagons  that  ever  crossed  "Hickory  Nut 
Gap." 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

If  they  had  enemies,  they  left  them;  if  they  had 
faults,  they  perhaps  tried  to  leave  that  undesirable 
part  of  themselves  far  behind,  and  under  clearer 
skies  and  brighter  stars  they  planned  to  start  life 
anew. 

7.  "There  is  a  time  for  everything  under  the 
sun,"  says  Solomon,  the  Philosopher,  as  he  looked 
upon  the  fields  of  ripening  grain,  the  budding  of  the 
trees  and  the  bleating  of  young  lambs. 

And  there  came  a  request  that  the  girl,  Nancy 
Hanks,  who  had  been  with  the  Enloes  for  years,  be 
sent  away.  No  particular  place  was  designated  at 
the  time  by  Mrs.  Enloe.  But  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold was  blamed  for  the  unfortunate  circumstances 
which  caused  such  a  demand.  Enloe  "procured 
Hon.  Felix  Walker  to  take  her  away"  to  a  place  un- 
known to  the  neighbors  at  that  time.  (H.  J.  Beck, 
Cathey,  page  57).  Volcanic  feelings  romped  and 
played  havoc  in  the  mind  of  Mrs.  Enloe,  who  didn't 
fail  to  let  the  neighbors  know  how  she  felt  about 
the  affair. 

In  her  darkest  hours,  when  the  kindness  of  friends 
was  worth  far  more  to  Nancy  than  silver  or  gold  she 
did  not  look  in  vain  to  Abraham,  who  saw  that  this 
girl  was  taken  immediately  beyond  the  reach  of  an 
abusive  tongue  that  frequently  brought  the  tears 
from  the  eyes  of  this  fair  young  Hagar. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  19 

For  we  can  imagine,  and  not  miss  it,  that  many- 
sharp  and  cutting  things  were  said  to  poor  Nancy; 
and  often-times  during  these  last  days  at  the  Enloe 
home,  when  she  arose  in  the  morning  for  her  work, 
she  lifted  her  handsome  girlish  face  from  a  tear- 
soaked  pillow  where  she  had  spent  the  whole  night 
in  her  Gethesmane  of  sorrow. 

The  gossips  began  and  faithfully  performed  their 
duties.  The  winds  blew  the  news  all  over  the  coun- 
try. People  knew  about  the  trouble  in  the  home  of 
Mr.  Enloe,  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea. 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  JOURNEY  BACK  TO  RUTHERFORDTON 


In  a  very  short  time  Nancy  was  ready  for  her 
journey  to  some  place  she  knew  not  where;  but 
Hagar-like  she  must  go  and  find  a  place  where  she 
could  rest  in  seclusion  for  she  was  weary  of  soul. 

Nancy  is  taken  by  Mr.  Walker  across  a  big  moun- 
tain and  down  a  beautiful  valley  frilled  with  rhodo- 
dendron, kalmia  and  honeysuckles  from  the  Enloe 
home  on  Ocona  Lufta  to  the  home  of  the  first  Con- 
gressman of  Western  North  Carolina,  the  Hon.  Felix 
Walker,  of  Jonothan's  Creek,  now  in  Haywood 
County.  Walker  was  the  "Congressman  from  Bun- 
combe." This  furnished  a  foundation  for  a  tra- 
dition that  Nancy's  child  was  born  there.  I  have 
found  the  old  home  site  of  the  Hon.  Felix  Walker 
on  Johnathan's  Creek  and  have  seen  the  old  deed 
to  the  land  he  owned,  about  six  miles  from  Weynes- 
ville.  Because  Nancy  Hanks  stopped  here  for  a  while 
some  people  thought  this  was  the  birthplace  o*f 
Lincoln. 

8.  Felix  Walker  was  a  good  man,  a  close  per- 
sonal friend  and  neighbor  of  Abraham  Enloe.  They 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 21 

had  both  gone  from  the  same  community  in  Ruthr- 
ford  County,  where  Enloe  had  bought  a  tract  of 
land  from  Walker  in  1796.  Nancy  had  been  placed 
in  Walker's  care  and  confided  to  his  keeping.  Mr. 
Walker  was  soon  ready  for  a  journey  over  the  Blue 
Ridge,  toward  the  rising  sun.  Felix  rises  long  be- 
fore daylight,  feeds  his  horse,  loads  his  pistols,  gets 
down  his  sword  and  makes  thorough  preparation 
for  a  trip  not  altogether  free  from  hazard.  For, 
there  are  very  treacherous  wild  animals  at  this  time 
along  the  trail  over  Hickory  Nut  Gap  and  down 
through  the  deep  Chimney  Rock  Gorge.  Soon  as 
breakfast  is  over  he  is  off  like  the  wind  to  fulfill  a 
trust  that  is  as  sacred  to  him  as  life  itself.  His  good 
friend,  Abraham  Enloe,  was  instrumental  in  electing 
him  to  Congress,  and  he  has  not  forgotten  it. 

Mr.  Walker  is  a  big  man  back  in  his  home  County, 
Rutherford,  and  he  has  lots  of  friends  around  Puzzle 
Creek  where  Nancy  Hanks  was  raised.  He  was  will- 
ing to  do  anything  he  could  for  Nancy.  He  was 
moved  when  he  listened  to  her  story.  Nancy  had 
never  known  what  it  meant  to  have  a  father's  love 
and  advice ;  and  only  a  few  short  years  had  this  girl 
been  with  a  mother.  Poverty  and  Hardship  were 
her  brothers.  She  was  destitute  of  any  relatives 
who  cared  anything  about  her. 

Felix  Walker  thought,  how  different  it  might  have 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

been  with  this  poor  girl  if  she  had  been  fortunate 
enough  to  have  a  father  and  mother  and  a  home  of 
lier  own;  and  he  thought  as  he  wiped  large  tears 
from  his  honest  eyes,  how  Jesus  would  feel  if  He 
were  here  and  she  were  to  tell  Him  her  sad  story. 

Jesus  would  help  her.  In  His  fold  He  would  have 
a  place  where  Nancy  could  rest,  thought  Mr.  Walker. 
He  saw  in  her  honest  face  and  honest  eyes  that  she 
had  never  meant  to  do  anything  wrong  in  her  life, 
though  every  rustle  of  a  leaf  and  every  whisper  of 
the  winds  were  confronting  her,  it  seemed,  with  an 
an  unbearable  accusation. 

Would  it  be  really  worthwhile  to  live  through  it 
all,  Nancy  wondered,  as  she  saw  Mr.  Walker  plow 
the  sides  of  his  steed  with  steel  spurs  as  he  hastily 
rode  away  to  look  up  a  place  for  Nancy. 

After  being  chased  by  three  large  panthers  and 
five  hungry  wolves  on  his  way  over  the  big  moun- 
tains, Mr.  Walker  reached  Rutherfordton,  a  very 
insignificant  little  village,  the  county  seat.  After 
resting  his  horse  he  proceeded  on  to  Puzzle  Creek 
about  eight  miles  further  where  he  expected  to 
spend  the  night  with  old  friends. 

Abraham  Enloe  still  owned  the  old  home-place 
where  Nancy  Hanks  had  lived  from  the  time  her 
mother  placed  her  in  the  Enloe  home  until  they  all 
moved  across  the  mountains  in  about  1804;  and 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  23 

when  Felix  Walker  rode  his  horse  up  the  hill  and 
stopped  at  the  gate  he  was  received  with  a  welcome 
that  made  his  heart  glad. 

People  had  rented  the  old  Enloe  place,  and  Mr. 
Walker  brought  them  news  from  the  Enloe  family. 
Indeed  it  was  news,  and  they  listened  to  the  story  in 
behalf  of  Nancy;  they  knew  her  well  and  loved  her 
from  a  little  girl.  They  gladly  offered  to  do  any- 
thing they  could  for  her. 

It  was  agreed  that  Nancy  should  be  brought  back 
there  to  stay  with  them.  After  spending  some  time 
attending  to  some  important  matter  Felix  Walker 
departed  for  his  home  near  the  Balsams,  in  Hay- 
wood. (C.  O.  Ridings,  Attorney,  says  there  was 
more  than  one  trip  to  Rutherfordton  in  the  interest 
of  Nancy). 

Upon  his  arrival  at  his  home  he  found  Nancy  in 
very  deep  distress  of  mind.  She  had  been  praying 
to  die.  She  said  she  felt  forsaken  by  all  her  friends ; 
and  there  was  nothing  to  live  for  any  more.  But, 
said  Mr.  Walker,  "I  have  had  a  very  strange  dream. 
Last  night  as  I  was  sleeping,  in  the  very  house 
where  you  lived,  in  Rutherford  county,  where  you 
gathered  wild  flowers  in  the  woodland  by  the  beau- 
tiful brook,  and  where  you  waded  in  the  creek  when 
a  little  girl  and  gathered  muscadines  down  near  the 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

spring — Yes,  Nancy,  I  saw  you  there  again  and  in 
one  hand  you  held  a  large  bouquet  of  beautiful 
flowers  and  in  the  other  you  held  a  large  bunch  of 
grapes;  the  whole  hill  was  covered  with  people  and 
in  their  midst  was  an  altar.  In  my  dream  I  saw  you 
walk  up  to  this  altar  and  place  upon  it  your  flowers 
and  grapes  in  the  midst  of  the  people;  and  I  heard 
thunderings  and  voices;  and  I  awoke.  Nancy,  it 
may  be  that  you  are  to  lay  upon  the  altar  of  your 
country  an  offering  far  more  precious  than  flowers 
and  grapes;  and  you  may  wade  into  strange  waters 
in  order  that  the  people  may  have  this  offering.  This 
may  be  your  only  crown  of  joy.  Nancy,  take  heart 
and  live,  I  am  to  take  you  back  to  Puzzle  Creek.  The 
folks  are  all  anxious  to  see  you  down  there.  We 
will  leave  tomorrow  morning." 

So  Nancy  was  taken  back  to  the  very  place  where 
she  had  grown  to  womanhood  in  Rutherford  County. 
Here  she  remained  on  Puzzle  Creek  until  the  stern 
hand  of  destiny  pointed  toward  the  western  horizon. 
Peace  had  not  yet  been  restored  in  the  home  of 
Abraham  Enloe  of  Ocona  Lufta.  And  he  made  ar- 
rangements to  have  Nancy  taken  to  Kentucky,  to 
his  daughter,  Nancy,  now  Mrs.  Thompson,  just  over 
the  Tennessee  line. 

1.  Michael  Tanner,  a  Rutherford  County  horse- 
trader  and  farmer,  took  Nancy  away  on  his  horse 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 25 

behind  him,  the  child  in  his  arms. 

2.  Nancy's  mother,  Lucy  Hanks,  had  gone  to  Ken- 
tucky a  few  years  before  and  had  married  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Henry  Sparrow.  Her  aunt  Nancy 
had  also  gone  to  Kentucky  and  had  married  Richard 
Berry.  Her  aunts  and  her  mother  all  lived  in  Ken- 
tucky, at  this  time,  but  had  formerly  lived  in  North 
Carolina. 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN^ 


CHAPTER  V. 

NANCY  AND  "LITTLE  ABE"  LEAVE  RUTHER- 
FORD COUNTY  FOR  KENTUCKY. 


Tradition  has  at  least  three  different  parties  con- 
nected with  the  taking  of  Nancy  Hanks  from  the 
Enloe  home  at  Ocona  Lufta,  in  Swain  County,  to 
Kentucky.  At  first  thought,  one  would  consider  this 
an  irreconcilable  contradiction.  But  such  is  not 
the  case,  by  any  means.  The  Rutherford  County 
story  furnishes  the  key  to  this  problem.  It  was 
written  up  about  fifty  years  ago,  by  Columbus 
Tanner.  Mr.  Tanner  said  that  "Michael  Tanner,  a 
horse-trader,  took  Nancy  and  the  child  to  Kentucky 
from  the  old  Enloe  place  on  Puzzle  Creek,  in  Ruth- 
erford County." 

The  article  published  in  the  Charlotte  Observer 
of  September  17,  1893,  contains  a  reference  to  a 
tradition  that  a  "mule-drover"  took  Nancy  to  Ken- 
tucky, and  another  story  that  "Felix  Walker,  the 
Congressional  Representative — the  author  of  the 
famous  expression  'speaking  for  Buncombe' — in  or- 
der to  do  his  constituent  "Abram"  a  good  turn,  car- 
Tied  Hagar  and  Ishmael  to  Hardin  County,  Ken- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  27 

tucky."  And  the  family  tradition  is  that  the  daugh- 
ter that  had  run  away  and  married  came  home  and 
took  Nancy  and  the  child  back  with  her. 

Mr.  H.  J.  Beck,  a  neighbor  of  the  Enloes,  testi- 
fies that  it  was  Felix  Walker  who  took  Nancy  away 
from  the  Enloe  home  at  Ocona  Lufta,  in  Swain 
County.  (Cathey,  page  58). 

Mr.  Cathey  gives  another  witness,  Phillis  Wells, 
a  very  old  man  who  knew  the  Enloes  and  Nancy 
Hanks.  He  says  Nancy  was  sent  to  Jonathan's 
Creek  by  Enloe  who  hired  a  family  there  to  care 
for  her,  and  that  later  she  and  her  child  were  sent 
to  some  place  between  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  and 
cared  for  there  by  relatives  of  Enloe. 

1.  It  was  no  great  secret  that  Felix  Walker  took 
the  girl  away  from  Enloe's.  And  some  knew  she 
was  taken  to  his  home  on  Jonathan's  Creek.  But 
here  was  the  secret  that  none  of  the  neighbors 
found  out,  where  Felix  took  Nancy  from  his  home. 
It  was  carefully  guarded,  and  they  never  knew  that 
he  took  her  back  to  Rutherford  County.  It  was 
during  this  interim,  when  some  had  found  that  she 
was  not  at  Walker's  that  they  began  to  suspect  that 
Enloe  had  made  away  with  her.  Some  reported 
that  she  could  not  be  found,  and  matters  began  to 
grow  serious.  Just  then  the  news  is  received  that 
Nancy  is  alive  and  has  a  child.    Yet  her  whereabouts 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

is  kept  under  cover.  Felix  is  unquestionably  the 
active  agent  of  all  these  manouvers.  He  had  Michael 
Tanner  take  her  from  Rutherford  County  by  his 
house  to  Abraham  Enloe's  to  satisfy  the  angry 
neighbors.  Here  she  met  with  the  runaway  daugh- 
ter of  Enloe  who  was  back  home,  and  this  daughter 
took  her  to  Kentucky  with  her.  So  there  is  no  con- 
tradiction! Michael  Tanner  of  Rutherford  county 
was  the  "mule-drover,"  or,  "horse-trader',,  as  he  was 
called  in  his  home  county.  This  takes  the  tangle 
out  and  clarifies  the  situation. 

Nancy  Hanks  didn't  wait  until  she  went  to  Ken- 
tucky that  she  might  learn  about  the  grandfather 
of  Tom  Lincoln  and  name  her  boy  for  this  "Abra- 
ham." But  she  named  him  immediately  after  he 
"discovered  America,"  down  on  Puzzle  Creek,  in 
Rutherford  county. 

Michael  Tanner,  as  he  took  her  and  little  Abra- 
ham away,  may  have  told  Nancy  the  secret,  that  he 
was  her  father,  the  "well-bred  Virginian"  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  referred  to  later  in  a  talk  with 
Herndon,  his  first  and  most  reliable  biographer  in 
1850.  Somebody  conveyed  this  information  to  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  it  was  doubtless  his  own  mother,  who 
told  this  when  she  led  him  into  the  secret  of  his 
own  origin.     It  was  doubtless  a  lesson  she  did  not 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 29 

want  him  to  forget,  for  she  had  a  devotion  for  the 
one  for  whom  she  named  her  first-born  son! 

On  the  way  to  Kentucky  they  had  to  pass  through 
long  stretches  of  wilderness  and  over  large  moun- 
tains where  a  human  voice  was  seldom  heard.  In 
these  vast  areas  of  desert,  various  wild  animals 
roamed  in  abundance  day  and  night,  often  springing 
a  surprise  or  bringing  terror  to  one  happening  to 
be  alone.  The  wolves  then  went  in  "packs,"  and 
rendered  the  nights  hideous  by  their  yelping  howls. 
They  would  hardly  attack  a  person  unless  they  were 
very  hungry,  but  would  come  right  into  the  settle- 
ments, even  into  people's  yards  and  fight  the  dogs, 
and  kill  sheep,  calves,  or  anything  to  satisfy  their 
appetite. 

Bears  and  panthers  were  also  very  numerous  at 
this  time,  the  latter  being  considered  the  most 
dangerous  of  all  the  wild  animals,  especially  on 
account  of  their  great  treachery  and  cunning.  They 
would  stealthily  follow  a  person  for  miles  seeking  a 
good  opportunity  to  get  an  advantage,  always  mak- 
ing the  attack  when  the  party  was  off-guard,  or 
unaware  of  any  danger;  but  most  frequently  a 
panther  would  run  ahead  and  intercept  his  quarry 
and  leap  on  it  from  ambush.  The  cry  of  this  vicious 
animal  was  very  much  like  the  cry  of  a  baby  at 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

times;  and  again,  like  the  scream  of  a  woman  at  a 
distance. 

These  beasts  were  often  frightened  away  or  held 
at  bay  by  burning  gunpowder,  or  sulphur.  And  one 
could  carry  a  torch  of  blazing  fire  at  night  with  the 
same  results. 

As  they  were  nearing  the  top  of  Hickory  Nut  Gap 
the  baby  became  so  tired  from  the  monotony  of  be- 
ing carried  in  one  position  in  Michael's  arms  that 
he  began  to  cry.  This  was  first  answered  by  a  large 
mountain  owl  over  in  a  cove.  Then  came  a  low  howl 
as  from  a  great  distance;  then  two,  then  from  a 
thousand  throats  poured  forth  one  mighty  yelping 
chorus  that  made  the  hair  stand  on  end  as  the  couple 
listened  to  a  pack  of  wolves  down  in  the  deep  gorge 
through  which  these  people  had  passed.  In  a  lull 
of  this  pandemonium  Nancy  Hanks  called  Mr.  Tan- 
ner's attention  to  a  peculiar  crying-growl  just  a 
little  ways  off  toward  a  great  ledge  of  cliffs.  Look- 
ing in  that  direction  Michael  Tanner  saw  a  large 
panther  standing  on  a  big  rock  with  its  nose  pointed 
in  their  direction. 

He  lost  no  time  in  getting  ready  his  pistols  and 
prepared  to  burn  some  powder.  Leaving  some  burn- 
ing sulphur  right  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  they 
hurriedly  crossed  over,  and  safely  made  their  way 
on  to  the  home  of  Mr.  Walker.    After  a  day's  rest 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  31 

Nancy  and  little  Abe  were  taken  over  to  Ocona 
Lufta  and  Nancy  Enloe,  now  Mrs.  Thompson,  was 
back  home  from  Kentucky,  and  the  Thompson's  took 
Nancy  and  the  boy  home  with  them.  (Cathey,  page 
60) 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 


CHAPTER  VI. 
NANCY'S  MARRIAGE. 


3.  In  1806,  Nancy  Hanks  was  married  to  Thomas 
Lincoln  in  Kentucky.  She  doubtless  divided  the 
time  of  her  residence  after  reaching  Kentucky  with 
her  aunts  and  Nancy  Enloe  Thompson,  and  was 
married  at  the  home  of  her  uncle  Berry.  There  is 
a  tradition  that  the  Berry's,  Shiplies  and  Lincolns 
lived  on  the  Catawba  River  in  North  Carolina  and 
went  to  Kentucky  about  1780. 

4.  The  supposition  is,  that  Nancy  had  either 
seen  or  heard  of  these  folks  before  she  was  sent  to 
Kentucky.  However,  this  is  conjectural  and  with- 
out evidence. 

The  stories  by  some  who  were  supposed  to  have 
been  present  at  the  wedding,  that  Nancy  had  no 
child  when  she  was  married,  are  not  sufficient  in  the 
face  of  insurmountable  proof  to  the  contrary.  One 
knows  that  such  a  wedding  could  have  taken  place 
without  the  presence  of  "Little  Abe,"  as  is  often 
the  case. 

5.  We  have  been  told  that  this  baby  was  fre- 
quently hidden  in  the  basement  of  the  old  Enloe 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  33 

home  on  Lincoln  Hill  in  Rutherford  county,  when 
company  would  come,  before  she  went  to  Kentucky. 
And  the  little  fellow  was  probably  hid  many  times 
before  she  married  Lincoln.  This  position  is  very 
strongly  corroborated  by  the  writers  who  favor  the 
Kentucky  nativity. 

6.  In  fact  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  harmonize 
the  various  Kentucky  stories  with  each  other.  There 
are  at  least  eleven  different  birthplaces  pointed  out 
for  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Kentucky!  And  no  one  of 
them  is  correct!  Again,  the  veracity  of  an  old  min- 
ister has  been  called  into  question.  The  Rev.  John 
Duncan,  a  "playmate  of  Abe,"  and  preacher  of  prom- 
inence in  Kentucky,  who  told  a  story  about  how  he 
and  Abraham  Lincoln  caught  a  groundhog.  It  ran 
into  a  crevice  between  two  rocks,  and  Abe  Lincoln 
ran  off  to  get  something  with  which  to  pull  the  hog 
out  of  his  den.  Lincoln  went  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  to  a  blacksmith  shop  and  brought  back  a  pole 
with  a  hook  fastened  to  the  end  of  it  with  which 
they  easily  pulled  the  animal  out  of  his  hole.  A  late 
writer,  Prof.  Warren,  thinks  this  untrue,  because, 
says  he,  "According  to  the  Records  in  Kentucky, 
Lincoln  could  have  been  only  two  years  old  when 
this  happened,"  counting  that  Lincoln  was  born  in 
Kentucky,  according  to  popular  belief,  in  1809 ;  but 
add  to  this  the  two  or  thre  years,  possibly,  covered 


34 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

— 7 

from  his  birth  in  Rutherford  County,  North  Caro- 
dina  to  the  time  his  mother  married  Tom  Lincoln, 
and  then  about  three  years  more,  and  you  will  have 
a  boy  that  is  able  to  do  just  what  the  old  preacher 
said  he  did. 

You  see,  they  claim  that  he  was  born  in  the  year 
1809  and  that  his  mother  was  married  in  1806.  So 
he  would  have  been  more  than  five  years  old 
if  his  mother's  marriage  had  taken  place  immedi- 
ately after  her  arrival  in  Kentucky  with  the  child! 
But  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  she  was  not 
married  immediately,  but  that  it  was  a  year  or 
more  afterward,  making  him  six  or  seven  years  old 
when  he  helped  to  catch  the  groundhog.  This  au- 
thor, Mr.  L.  A.  Warren,  who  offered  this  criticism, 
offers  a  number  of  others  of  similar  character,  all 
of  which  can  easily  be  met  in  the  same  way,  and  all 
of  which  are  in  accord  with  the  North  Carolina 
theory ! 

The  reason  for  the  criticism  that  "the  writers 
all  picture  Abraham  Lincoln"  as  a  youth  rather 
than  a  little  child,"  in  all  the  stories  written  from 
the  Kentucky  viewpoint  finds  a  solution  in  the  tra- 
dition we  herein  offer;  for  that  was  his  status  at 
the  point  where  they  begin.  They  say  he  was  a 
grown    man    at    seventeen  according  to  Kentucky 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  35- 

chronology — for  he  was  really  twenty-one  years  old ! 
(H.  &  W.,  page  51). 

7.  This  also  furnishes  a  complete  solution  of 
the  difficulty  they  find  in  the  statement  of  Mr. 
Haycroft  that  "he  was  a  little  shirt-tail  boy"  in 
Elizabethton  where  Tom  and  Nancy  lived  two  years 
after  they  married,  for  he  was  this  age  at  this  time, 
notwithstanding  the  attempted  refutation  of  this 
story  by  Mr.  Warren,  who  says  "Abe"  was  not  born 
when  his  parents  lived  in  Elizabethton,  Kentucky." 
But  Haycroft  says  he  saw  him  in  Elizabethton  a 
little  "shirt-tail  boy." 

And  the  same  is  true  of  the  story  about  him  go- 
ing to  Hodgen's  mill,  with  a  bag  of  corn  on  his 
shoulders,  seven  miles,  getting  his  "turn"  ground 
and  walking  back  home  with  it  on  his  shoulder. 
Warren  says,  this  can't  possibly  be  true  for,  accord- 
ing to  the  Kentucky  chronology,  this  boy  was  then 
only  eight  years  old.  But  when  you  add  from  three 
to  five  years  to  this  boy's  age,  he  will  be  equal  to 
this  and  any  similar  task. 

Warren  also  rejects  Austin  Gallaher's  story  he 
told;  how  he  saved  Lincoln  from  drowning  as  they 
were  trying  to  "coon  it"  across  Knob  Creek  on  a 
log.  These  boys  were  in  pursuit  of  birds,  when  Abe 
fell  in  and  the  boy,  Gallaher,  "fished  him  out  with 
a  sycamore  branch." 


.36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

The  same  critic  discredits  President  Lincoln's 
story  that  he  told  about  sitting  on  a  nail  keg  and 
eating  sugar.  He  told  about  Judge  J.  B.  Helm  feed- 
ing him  sugar  when  he  was  a  boy  and  this  above 
mentioned  author  says  this  can't  be  true  for  he  says 
he  was  not  old  enough.  Yet  from  our  standpoint 
it  can  be  true ;  and  Lincoln  tells  the  truth  about  this 
incident. 

The  Abraham  Enloe  of  Kentucky,  who  was  only 
sixteen  years  old  when  Lincoln  was  born,  accord- 
ing to  Kentucky  chronology,  was  a  son  of  Esom 
Enloe.  But  the  Abraham  Enloe  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina tradition  was  not  a  son  of  Esom  Enloe  and  was 
a  man  with  a  large  family  at  that  time,  and  living 
in  North  Carolina.  And  the  notorious  fight  was  not 
between  the  young  Kentucky  Enloe  and  Tom  Lin- 
coln, but  between  the  North  Carolina  Enloe  and 
Lincoln,  and  the  North  Carolina  Enloe  was  the  one 
who  had  his  nose  bit  off  by  Tom  Lincoln  in  the  fight. 
So  tumbles  Barton's  Gibraltar  argument. 

8.  It  is  agreed  that  there  was  a  tradition  in 
Kentucky  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  named,  Ab- 
raham, after  an  Abraham  Enloe.  But  it  seems  that 
they  had  lost  sight  of  the  North  Carolina  Enloe, 
and  now  they  endeavor  to  weave  the  story  around 
the  boy  of  this  name  who  was  raised  in  the  same 
community  where  the  Hankses  and  Lincolns  had 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  37 

r 

located.  To  look  this  story  in  the  face,  it  has  the 
appearance  of  an  effort  to  evade  the  finding  of  the 
Enloe  who  had  reared  Nancy  Hanks. 

The  Hanks  boys,  Dennis  and  John,  who  were  born 
in  1799  and  1802  and  have  furnished  the  greater 
part  of  the  information  about  Nancy  Hanks  from 
the  Kentucky  standpoint,  were  too  young  and  too 
far  from  Nancy  to  be  in  position  to  bear  testimony 
of  value  in  her  case.  The  truth  is,  they  knew  noth- 
ing about  Nancy,  and  had  never  seen  her  in  their 
lives  until  after  she  had  gone  to  Kentucky,  a  grown 
young  woman,  and  they  were  small  children  at  this 
time.  The  story  about  the  names  of  Dennis  Hanks' 
aunts  we  are  in  position  to  accept,  because  this  cor- 
roborates the  North  Carolina  tradition,  which  is  an 
independent  story. 

We  have  no  right  to  reject  testimony  of  President 
Lincoln,  at  least,  when  supported  by  the  North  Car- 
olina story  and  the  Hanks  story,  that  Lucy  Hanks 
was  the  mother  of  Nancy  Hanks.  Lucy  was  well 
known  in  Rutherford  County  before  Nancy  was 
placed  in  the  home  of  Enloe.  After  this  she  went 
to  Kentucky  and  married. 

9.  The  witnesses  who  give  testimony  as  to  the 
birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Kentucky,  doubtless 
are  sincere  in  their  belief  that  they  were  present 
at  the  birth  of  the  President ;  but  I  will  say  of  this,, 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

as  Warren  says  of  some  of  the  Kentucky  witnesses 
whose  testimony  he  could  not  explain,  "It  was  a 
case  of  mistaken  identity."  The  baby  of  whom  they 
speak  was  not  Abe  but  Thomas  whose  birth  nor 
death  were  recorded  in  the  family  Bible  with  the 
other  names.  I  will  not  say  that  this  was  omitted 
purposely  to  afford  a  space  in  the  chronology  for 
the  name  of  Abraham  to  appear  as  a  son  of  Thomas 
and  Nancy,  but  in  the  light  of  all  the  accumulated 
testimony  and  circumstantial  evidence  it  does  seem 
to  be  a  queer  coincident  indeed. 

The  very  fact  that  the  Kentucky  tradition  has  as 
many  as  eleven  birthplaces  designated  as  the  very 
spots  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born,  four  in  one 
county,  is  sufficient  to  create  very  grave  doubts  as 
to  there  being  any  real  fact  to  support  the  Kentucky 
claim  at  all,  other  than  simply  the  fact  of  residence 
or  of  being  seen  at  these  places  mentioned. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  39 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    POLITICAL    CONDITION    RESPONSIBLE 
FOR  SUPPRESSION  OF  FACTS. 


The  condtion  in  Rutherford  County  which  pre- 
vailed during  Lincoln's  time  is  illustrated  by  the 
following  incident: 

1.  At  an  election  in  Rutherford  County  when  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Benjamin  Lovelace  expressed 
his  intention  to  vote  for  Abraham  Lincoln  for  Pres- 
ident, the  crowd  grew  angry  and  some  said  "kill 
him,,,  others  said  "hang  him."  And  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Amos  Harrell  said,  "just  let  me  to  him." 
Whereupon  the  crowd  parted  for  Harrell,  and  he 
ran  up  and  kicked  Lovelace  out  of  the  crowd;  and 
Lovelace  continued  to  run  for  his  life  until  he  was 
hidden  in  the  nearby  woods  and  out  of  sight. 

2.  Another  man,  Tim  Haney.  was  hanged  not  far 
from  the  same  place  for  a  political  offense. 
The  old  people  who  related  to  me  this  story,  full- 
fledged  Democrats,  say  it  was  really  dangerous  to 
show  an  interest  in  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  that  is 
the  reason  more  than  anything  else  for  this  tra- 
dition about  his  birth  being  held  as  a  kind  of  secret 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

so  long  in  Rutherford  County.  It  was  rather  a 
community  secret  that  people  thought  they  could 
not  afford  to  talk  about  with  any  real  interest. 

We  would  cover  these  unsightly  spots  with  a 
mantle  of  charity  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  their 
rehearsal  sheds  a  light  upon  the  conditions  at  that 
time,  revealing  a  dark  background  which  forbade 
the  freedom  of  speech  so  much  prized  today. 

We  are  now  in  much  better  position  to  pass  upon 
the  real  value  of  a  great  man.  We  can  now  begin  to 
see  that  this  man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  not  the 
South's  bitter  enemy;  but  in  reality  its  best  friend. 
We  can  now  see  that  this  great  country  could  not 
stand  divided,  nor  could  it  long  endure  with  the 
greatest  slave  pen  in  the  world  within  its  borders. 

President  Lincoln  was  an  intellectual  giant,  a 
great  political  prophet  who  could  see  ahead  the 
awful  national  disaster  that  was  sure  to  come  to  this 
country  if  a  few  hot-headed  slave-owning  politicians 
were  permitted  to  have  their  way.  People  are  some- 
what like  sheep.  An  old  "bell-wether"  can  quickly 
demoralize  a  whole  flock  of  innocent,  docile  sheep, 
and  create  a  stampede,  causing  a  lot  of  trouble.  So 
it  was  with  the  south  and  north  just  a  few  old  "bell- 
wethers" were  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble,  North 
and  South. 

Lincoln  was  the  "Moses"  that  God  raised  up  to 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  41 

do  the  work  no  other  man  could  do.  And  while  he 
led,  he  doubtless  was  following  his  pillar  of  fire 
that  led  him  through  the  red  sea,  which  seemed  to 
be  the  way — the  only  way  that  was  possible  under 
the  conditions  of  that  time,  to  pass  on  to  Liberty, 
democracy  and  national  security. 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
DISCUSSION  OF  ANCESTRY. 


Mr.  Herndon,  Lincoln's  first  and  most  capable 
biographer,  says  that  Abraham  Lincoln  told  him 
about  the  year  1850,  that  his  mother  was  the  ille- 
gitimate daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks  and  a  well-bred 
but  obscure  Virginia  farmer.  (Herndon  &  Weik, 
Vol.  1,  page  3). 

This  corresponds  to  the  North  Carolina  tradition 
?both  as  to  the  name  of  Nancy's  mother  and  also  as 
to  the  fact  that  she  had  never  been  married,  con- 
trary to  the  report  of  Nancy's  cousin  Dennis,  of 
whom  it  was  said,  "he  would  lie  a  little."  (Warren 
29).  This  Dennis  Hanks,  was,  according  to  his 
story,  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  Nancy  Hanks,  who 
had  spent  some  time  doubtless  with  the  North  Car- 
olina members  of  the  Hanks  family  when  they  were 
located  in  Gaston  county,  at  Belmont,  N.  C. 

Mr.  Warren,  a  recent  author,  says  he  dug  up  an 
old  court  record  in  Kentucky  where  Lucy  Hanks, 
the  mother  of  the  subject  of  our  story,  was  indicted 
for  fornication,  in  1789.  This  was  before  she  mar- 
ried Sparrow  in  1791.    Prof.  Warren  surmised  that 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  43 

— — ■ 1 

her  daughter  Nancy  had  gone  to  Kentucky  with  her 
and  was  there  when  this  case  was  in  court.  Thus 
placing  her  in  Kentucky  at  an  earlier  period,  and 
disregarding  all  North  Carolina  traditions.  But 
there  were  people  in  North  Carolina  who  knew 
where  this  Nancy  was  at  this  time.  She  didn't  go 
to  Kentucky  with  her  mother  at  all.  It  was  during 
this  time,  1799,  this  little  girl  was  staying  at 
Belmont  with  her  Uncle  "Dicky,"  where  a  monu- 
ment has  been  erected  to  her  memory.  When  she 
was  placed  in  the  home  of  Abraham  Enloe  her 
mother  soon  left  for  Kentucky.  And  the  little  girl 
was  left  with  no  relatives  near. 

Mr.  Warren  runs  against  another  snag  in  the 
story  about  a  son  born  to  Tom  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
at  Elizabethton,  which  died  and  was  buried  there. 
This  writer,  says  this  is  impossible,  for  Abraham, 
born  after  this  time,  was  "older  than  this  child," 
but  according  to  the  North  Carolina  tradition  this 
is  no  difficulty,  for  Abraham  was  really  older  than 
the  child  that  "died  within  two  years  after  their 
marriage." 

Brackston  Smart's  Story. 

Mr.  Brackston  Smart  lives  on  the  highway  be- 
tween Forest  City  and  Ellenboro.  He  is  a  great- 
grandson  of  "Grannie"  (Nancy)  Hollifield,  and  owns 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

the  same  farm  and  lives  in  the  house  that  was  form- 
erly owned  by  this  great-grand-mother,  a  place 
often  visited  by  Nancy  Hanks.  He  owns  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  here  worth  $40,000.00.  He  is  an 
intelligent  farmer  and  his  wife  teaches  school.  My 
interview  with  him  secured  the  following  informa- 
tion, to- wit: 

That  this  old  lady,  popularly  spoken  of  as  "Gran- 
nie" Hollifield  lived  to  be  almost  one  hundred  and 
seven  years  old  (1794-1900).  During  her  girlhood 
days  she  was  intimately  associated  with  a  girl  by 
the  name  of  Nancy  Hanks  who  lived  at  the  home  of 
Abraham  Enloe  on  Puzzle  Creek,  in  Rutherford 
County.  She  made  the  statement  many  times  that 
she  had  seen  Nancy  and  her  child  at  the  old  Enloe 
home-place,  and  that  it  was  the  belief  of  all  the  old 
people  that  the  child  was  born  here,  and  later  taken 
to  some  place  in  Kentucky.  "My  great  grand-mother 
said  that  Enloe  hired  Tom  Lincoln  to  marry  this 
girl  and  was  to  give  him  fifty  dollars  and  a  team." 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  rehearsal  of  this  story, 
Mr.  Smart  gave  as  his  reason  for  so  definitely  re- 
membering what  this  old  woman  said,  that  about 
two  years  before  his  great-grandmother  died,  a 
Methodist  minister  by  the  name  of  C.  R.  Lee,  of 
Cliffside,  N.  C,  came  to  see  the  old  lady.  Rev.  Lee 
was  writing  up  this  Nancy  Hanks  and  Lincoln  story 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  45 

for  some  paper,  and  he  stayed  two  or  three  weeks 
in  this  community  getting  information,  and  he,  Mr. 
Smart,  heard  the  story  as  told  several  times  to  Mr. 
Lee.  At  this  time,  Mr.  Smart  was  about  fifteen 
years  old. 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD. 
Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  8th  day 
of  December,  1926,  B.  B.  Smart,  who  being  first 
duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says :  That  he  is  the  author 
of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read 
the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein 
stated  are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to 
those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and 
as  to  those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

B.  B.  SMART 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  8th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

E.  E.  HARRILL,  Notary  Public 
My  commission  expires  December  22nd,  1926. 

George  DePriest's  Story. 

Mr.  George  DePriest,  of  Shelby,  N.  C,  an  old 
gentleman  seventy-two  years  of  age,  gave  the  writer 
the  following  story :  That  when  he  was  living  in  the 
community  of  Duncan's  Creek,  Rutherford  County, 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

he  was  well  acquainted  with  an  old  lady  by  the  name 
of  Polly  Price,  popularly  called  "Aunt  Polly,"  who 
lived  to  be  a  hundred  years  old.  He  says  that  he 
often  saw  "Aunt  Polly"  and  heard  her  talk  about 
the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks.  She  said  she  was  intimately 
associated  with  Nancy  in  her  girlhood,  and  often 
went  to  quiltings  and  dances  with  her,  and  that 
Nancy  came  to  her  home  and  quilted  and  danced  at 
her  house.  She  said  she  often  visited  Nancy  when 
she  was  living  on  Puzzle  Creek,  in  the  home  of 
Abraham  Enloe.  She  saw  her  after  the  child  was 
born  at  the  Enloe  home  and  also  at  the  old  Concord 
Baptist  Church  where  she  took  the  baby  from 
Nancy  and  held  him  in  her  arms. 

When  Nancy  got  ready  to  leave  for  Kentucky, 
"Aunt  Polly"  said  she  was  at  the  old  Enloe  place 
and  saw  her  get  on  a  horse  behind  a  man  who  was 
a  horse  trader  and  ride  away,  the  man  taking  the 
baby  in  his  arms. 

Mr.  DePriest  says  he  was  raised  in  that  neighbor- 
hood, and  that  "beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  Ab- 
raham Enloe  was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 
STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  CLEVELAND. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  8th  day 
of  December,  1926,  G.  W.  DePriest,  who  being  duly 
sworn,  deposes  and  says:  That  he  is  the  author  of 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  47 

the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abraham 
Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read  the 
foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein  stated 
are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to  those 
matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and  as  to 
those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

G.  W.  DEPRIEST. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me,  this  the  8th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

A.  M.  HAMRICK,  Clerk  Superior  Court. 

Attorney  C.  0.  Riding's  Story. 

Mr.  C.  0.  Ridings  of  Forest  City,  a  popular  young 
attorney  furnsihed  the  following  interesting  story: 

He  says  that  he  is  the  grandson  of  the  late  Hon. 
Columbus  Tanner  of  this,  Rutherford  County,  North 
Carolina,  who  for  more  than  eighteen  years  was  hon- 
ored with  the  position  of  Clerk  and  assistant  Clerk 
of  the  Court  of  this  County.  He  says  his  grand- 
father was  born  in  the  year  1839,  and  died  in  1923, 
and  knew  all  of  the  old  people  well  who  were  con- 
versant with  the  facts  in  this  case  about  Nancy 
Hanks. 

Mr.  Tanner  spent  considerable  time  in  getting  up 
all  the  facts,  says  Mr.  Ridings,  and  writing  a  brief 
history  of  the  matter  in  which  he  hung  Nancy 
Hanks  on  the  Tanner  family  tree,   claiming  that 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Michael  Tanner  was  the  father  of  Nancy,  by  Lucy 
Hanks. 

In  his  grandfather's  write-up,  says  Mr.  Ridings, 
it  was  stated  that  the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks,  stayed  at 
Abraham  Enloe's,  on  Puzzle  Creek;  and  that  the 
child  that  was  later  known  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  was 
born  there.  That  a  horse  trader  by  the  name  of 
Michael  Tanner,  took  Nancy  on  his  horse  behind 
him  and  carried  her  away  with  the  baby  in  his 
arms.  Abraham  Enloe  was  believed  to  be  the  father 
of  the  child,  said  Mr.  Tanner  in  this  writing  which 
was  prepared  about  fifty  years  ago. 

Mr.  Tanner's  manuscript  has  recently  been  lost 
or  misplaced,  but  the  attorney  says  he  read  it  as 
many  as  three  times  and  knows  its  contents,  besides 
this  he  says  he  heard  his  grandfather  relate  the 
same  many  times. 

Mr.  Riding's  mother,  daughter  of  Columbus  Tan- 
ner, said  to  this  writer  that  she  well  remembered 
passing  along  the  road  between  where  Bostic  and 
Forest  City  are  located,  when  she  was  a  little  girl, 
in  company  with  her  grandfather,  and  at  some  point 
near  where  Bostic  is  located,  her  grandfather  point- 
ed north  and  said,  "right  out  there  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  is  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born." 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 49 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD, 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  3rd  day 
of  December,  C.  O.  Ridings,  who  being  duly  sworn 
deposes  and  says :  That  he  is  the  author  of  the  fore- 
going story  in  the  book  entitled  "Ajbraham  Lincoln 
a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read  the  foregoing 
story  and  that  the  matters  therein  stated  are  true 
of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to  those  matters 
stated  on  information  and  belief  and  as  to  those 
matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

C.  0.  RIDINGS. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  3rd 
day  of  December,  1926. 

D.  L.  BROWN.  Notary  Public. 
My  commission  expires  March  22,  1927. 

Story  by  J.  N.  Jones,  Groceryman. 
Forest  City,  N.  C. 

Mr.  Jones  is  62  years  old  and  was  raised  in 
Rutherford  county  and  is  familiar  with  the  story 
of  Nancy  Hanks  and  her  child,  as  told  by  the  old 
people  who  knew  the  facts.  He  says  he  lived  near 
the  old  lady  called  "Grannie"  (Nancy)  Hollifield, 
and  talked  with  her  frequently.  She  lived  to  be 
over  a  hundred  years  old,  he  says,  and  he  often 
heard  her  say  that  she  had  held  Abraham  Lincoln 


50 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-— 

in  her  arms  when  he  was  a  baby;  that  he  was  born 
at  the  old  Abraham  Enloe  place  on  Puzzle  Creek, 
in  Rutherford  County,  North  Carolina. 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  4th  day 
of  December,  1926,  J.  N.  Jones,  who  being  first 
duly  sworn  deposes  and  says:  That  he  is  the  author 
of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read 
the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein 
stated  are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to 
those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and 
as  to  those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

J.  N.  JONES. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  4th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

W.  L.  BROWN,  Notary  Public. 
My  commission  expires  March  22,  1927. 

Prof.  Tilman  R.  Ganes'  Investigation. 

About  thirty-three  years  ago  this  tradition  was 
critically  investigated  and  written  up  in  a  local 
newspaper  at  Shelby,  called  "The  Shelby  Aurora," 
by  Tilman  R.  Ganes,  a  Baptist  minister.  This  man, 
because  of  his  broad  culture  and  profound  intellect 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  51 

made  an  indelible  impression  on  the  Shelby  people 
and  others  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  The 
present  postmaster  of  Shelby,  Mr.  J.  R.  Quinn,  At- 
torney, member  of  the  law  firm  of  Quinn,  Hamrick 
and  Harris,  of  both  the  city  of  Shelby  and  Ruther- 
fordton,  says  he  well  remembers  Mr.  Ganes,  who 
preached  for  the  Baptist  Church  there  and  pro- 
moted the  building  of  a  female  college  in  that  town 
and  later  became  its  president.  Mr.  Quinn  says 
Mr.  Ganes  possessed  the  most  wonderful  intellect  of 
any  man  he  had  ever  seen.  He  says  the  articles 
written  by  Mr.  Ganes  are  still  remembered  by  him 
because  they  were  so  radically  different  from  any- 
thing he  had  ever  seen.  Until  that  time,  Mr.  Quinn 
said,  he  had  never  heard  or  read  anything  contrary 
to  the  popular  theory  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
born  in  Kentucky. 

But  Prof.  Ganes  ran  across  the  trail  of  the  Nancy 
Hanks  tradition  and  went  into  it  with  the  persis- 
tence of  a  bloodhound.  He  carefully  investigated 
these  stories,  following  them  to  their  various  sour- 
ces. To  make  sure  that  he  was  correct  in  his  diag- 
nosis, he  went  to  Kentucky  and  made  a  careful 
survey  of  the  most  authentic  sources  of  information 
to  be  found  in  that  state.  After  sifting  out  the 
chaff  from  the  wheat  he  found  that  North  Carolina 
had  a  very  much  stronger  claim  to  the  birthplace  of 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Abraham  Lincoln  than  Kentucky.  Mr.  Ganes  claimed 
that  he  had  discovered  evidence  which  proved  be- 
yond a  reasonable  doubt  that  "Honest  Abe"  was 
born  in  Rutherford  County,  North  Carolina.  He 
looked  up  the  old  people  who  were  in  position  to 
guide  him  to  the  spot,  and  they  took  him  to  "Lin- 
coln Hill"  on  Puzzle  Creek.  And  they  pointed  to 
this  old  rock  basement  on  the  hill  as  the  unmistak- 
able site  of  Lincoln's  birthplace.  This  was  the  po- 
sition that  he  took  in  his  newspaper  articles,  which 
are  remembered  yet  by  a  goodly  number  of  the 
people  in  this  section  of  the  country.  I  made  a  trip 
to  Shelby  to  see  if  I  could  find  a  copy  of  the  paper 
containing  his  article,  but  was  informed  that  they 
had  been  destroyed  by  fire  some  years  ago.  How- 
ever, I  am  yet  hoping  to  find  a  copy  that  has  been 
kept  by  some  one  who  was  taking  this  paper  at  this 
time. 

EDITORIAL  ENDORSEMENT. 
By  Mr.  Jas.  P.  Cook. 


Mr.  James  P.  Cook,  Editor  of  "The  Uplift,"  says 
in  the  issue  of  November  20,  1926 :  "There  is  scarce- 
ly any  doubt  of  the  accuracy  of  the  contention  of 
the  minister  of  Rutherford  County,  who  is  quoted 
by  Editor  R.  E.  Price  of  "The  Rutherford  County 
News." 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 53 

This  is  by  no  means  a  late  discovery.  Several 
years  prior  to  the  death  of  the  late  General  Julian 
S.  Carr,  it  was  the  privilege  of  "The  Uplift"  to 
carry  a  story  of  "Lincoln  and  His  Mother,"  which 
was  compiled  from  a  book  in  the  General's  library. 

That  story  is  in  harmony  with  Editor  Price's. 
Mr.  Price,  however,  fails  to  tell  of  the  visits  of 
Nancy  Hanks  she  was  accustomed  to  make  to 
friends  in  Gaston  county." 

The  above  editorial  endorsement  came  from  Mr. 
Cook  in  answer  to  Mr.  Price's  article  which  recently 
appeared  in  the  daily  newspapers  announcing  that 
"Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  Rutherford  County, 
North  Carolina,"  in  which  Editor  Price  gave  a 
lengthy  report  of  our  meeting  out  at  "Lincoln  Hill." 

"NANCY  HANKS,   HER  HOME   IN  NORTH 
CAROLINA." 

Article  by  Mrs.  Puett  and  Mrs.  Beard. 


We  are  here  quoting  an  article  which  was  fur- 
nished to  the  papers  in  1910  by  Mrs.  Minnie  Stowe 
Puett  and  Mrs.  Adelaide  Smith  Beard.  This  is  con- 
sistent with  other  stories  which  are  found  in  Ruth- 
erford County.  The  apparent  discrepancy  is  that 
Nancy  was  an  orphan  when  she  was  brought  from 
Virginia.     But  many  a  child  has  been  called  an 


.54 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

"orphan,"  for  a  while  under  similar  circumstances. 
Mr.  Warren  digs  up  a  Kentucky  Court  record  show- 
ing that  Nancy  was  not  an  orphan  in  1789.  And  her 
mother  was  married  to  Henry  Sparrow  in  Kentucky 
in  1791.  So,  according  to  documentary  testimony, 
Nancy  occupies  the  status  which  the  North  Caro- 
lina tradition  claims  she  held  at  this  time. 

"He  is  truly  great  who  rises  to  greatness  from 
profound  obscurity. 

"There  is  no  more  wonderful  truth  in  history  than 
this  statement,  as  the  lives  of  many  of  the  world's 
greatest  men  have  borne  witness.  As  Romulus  and 
Remus  came  from  the  lair  of  the  wolf  to  become  the 
founders  of  immortal  Rome ;  as  the  great  Napoleon 
arose  from  his  humble  Corsican  cottage  to  be  the 
ruler  of  Europe ;  so  Abraham  Lincoln  lifted  himself 
from  a  pioneer  cabin  to  a  place  of  supreme  great- 
ness, that  is  magnified  as  the  years  roll  by. 

"His  origin  and  rise  to  immortality  embodies  in 
itself  as  has  the  life  of  no  other  person,  the  true 
spirit  of  American  democracy.  This  principle  has 
been  ignored  by  the  majority  of  historians,  who 
have  seemingly  deemed  it  necessary  to  manufacture 
from  their  own  imaginations  an  origin  worthy  of  his 
greatness.  This  fallacy  is  all  too  unnecessary,  for 
the  position  that  Lincoln  now  occupies  in  the  hall 
of  fame  is  secure  beyond  their  ability  to  add  to  or 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 55 

to  detract  there  from. 

"Little  has  ever  been  written  concerning  Nancy 
Hanks,  Lincoln's  mother ;  and  the  fact  that  she  spent 
most  of  her  early  life  in  North  Carolina  has  been 
unknown  or  ignored  by  his  biographers.  In  an  ef- 
fort to  preserve  this  truth  to  history,  there  has 
recently  been  erected  near  the  town  of  Belmont, 
Gaston  County,  North  Carolina,  a  monument  on  the 
site  where  stood  her  cabin  home,  near  the  banks  of 
the  Catawba. 

"The  silver  current  of  this  river  wends  its  way 
slowly  through  the  verdant  hills.  From  its  moun- 
tan  sources  of  ice-cold  springs,  winning  tribute  from 
a  thousand  rills,  it  reigns  a  queenly  river,  matchless 
in  its  beauty  and  wonderful  in  its  power.  Along  its 
flower  enameled  borders  the  dark  brown  Indians 
roamed  in  the  years  gone  by.  Sapona,  the  great  chief 
of  the  Catawbas,  lighted  his  council  fires  on  its 
banks.  The  Indians  have  gone  forever,  but  their 
fame  is  kept  immortal  by  the  river  which  bears 
their  name. 

"The  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  Catawba  valley 
attracted  many  of  the  early  settlers  to  this  region, 
and  their  primitive  homes  were  built  on  the  hills 
overlooking  the  stream.  In  one  of  these  little  cabins 
lived  a  maiden  whose  name  and  life  were  destined 
to  become  of  vital  importance  and  enduring  fame 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

throughout  the  nation.  She  is  described  as  having 
dark  hair,  sallow  complexion,  and  gray  eyes,  and  of 
sad  and  thoughtful  countenance.  Little  else  is 
known  of  her  personality,  but  all  the  world  knows 
her  as  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

"According  to  local  tradition  (Gaston  County) 
Nancy  Hanks  was  an  orphan  and  came  to  North 
Carolina  with  her  uncle  Dicky  Hanks,  when  he 
moved  here  from  Virginia.  The  first  member  of 
the  Hanks  family  about  whom  anything  is  known 
was  Benjamin  Hanks,  who  come  to  Massachusetts 
from  England  in  1699.  One  of  his  sons,  William 
Hanks,  moved  to  Virginia.  He  had  a  family  of 
twelve  children,  his  descendants  forming  a  large 
settlement  in  Amelia  county,  some  of  his  family 
migrated  to  Kentucky,  while  others  came  to  North 
Carolina. 

"Three  members  of  the  Hanks  family,  two  uncles 
and  an  aunt  of  Nancy  Hanks,  settled  in  Lincoln, 
now  Gaston  County,  North  Carolina,  near  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  were  ac- 
companied from  Virginia  by  the  "orphan,"  Nancy, 
who  spent  most  of  her  girlhood  here  with  one  of 
these  uncles,  "Dicky"  Hanks.  He  was  the  ancestor 
of  many  of  the  present  residents  of  Gaston  and 
Lincoln  Counties.    He  moved  away  from  his  home 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 57 

on  the  Catawba  and  lived  in  another  part  of  the 
county  where  he  was  afterwards  burned  to  death. 
Much  stress  is  laid  by  some  hstorians  on  the  will 
of  one,  Joseph  Hanks,  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky, 
claiming  that  the  Lucy  Hanks  named  in  his  will, 
was  the  mother  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln.  This  could 
not  have  been  true  ,since  it  is  positively  known  that 
Dicky  Hanks  was  Nancy's  uncle  and  there  is  no 
Dicky  or  Richard  Hanks  mentioned  in  Joseph's  will. 

"Nancy  left  her  uncle's  home  while  he  still  re- 
sided on  the  Catawba,  and  went  to  live  in  the  west- 
ern part  of  what  was  then  Lincoln,  now  Rutherford 
County,  North  Carolina,  near  where  the  town  of 
Rutherfordton  stands  today.  Here  she  lived  in  the 
home  of  Abraham  Enloe,  going  there  for  the  pur- 
pose of  assisting  Mrs.  Enloe  with  her  household 
duties.  She  later  went  with  his  family  to  what  is 
now  Swain  County,  North  Carolina. 

"Abraham  Enloe  is  described  as  being  of  a  fine 
physique,  tall,  angular  with  dark  skin  and  course 
black  hair.  He  was  a  leader  in  his  community,  be- 
ing a  man  of  naturally  keen  intellect  and  having  an 
education  much  superior  to  his  associates.  His 
father  was  a  school  teacher  and  came  to  this  coun- 
try from  Scotland  and  personally  educated  his  son. 
While  Nancy  was  an  inmate  of  the  Enloe  home, 
circumstances  arose  which  caused  Mrs.   Enloe  to 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

insist  that  she  be  sent  away,  she  was  taken  to 
Kentucky  by  a  relative  of  the  family,  whose  home 
was  in  that  state.  These  facts  have  been  always 
known  in  the  communities  where  she  lived,  in 
Gaston,  Rutherford  and  Swain  counties,  and  many 
of  the  present  members  of  the  Enloe  family  ac- 
knowledge their  truth. 

"The  boulder  pictured  in  this  article  was  recently 
erected  by  the  descendants  of  a  former  owner  of 
the  land  on  which  it  stands.  He,  personally  re- 
membered the  cabin  and  often  pointed  out  this  site 
f*as  the  home  of  Nancy  and  Dicky  Hanks.  That 
Nancy  lived  here  and  her  subsequent  life  in  North 
Carolina  were  both  well  known  and  undisputed  in 
this  community.  On  the  face  of  this  boulder,  which 
is  of  massive  granite,  is  a  bronze  tablet  bearing  a 
replica  of  a  frontier  cabin  and  the  following  inscrip- 
tion :  "This  stone  marks  the  site  of  the  log  cabin 
home  of  Dicky  Hanks,  uncle  of  Nancy  Hanks, 
mother  af  Abraham  Lincoln.  Nancy  spent  much 
of  her  girlhood  here  with  her  uncle."  The  founda- 
tion stones  on  which  the  boulder  was  placed  were 
once  part  of  the  chimney  of  the  original  cabin.  The 
logs  of  this  cabin,  rough  hewn  from  virgin  timber, 
have  endured  until  today,  and  according  to  family 
tradition  were  rebuilt  into  another  cabin  still  in  use 
<on  this  plantation. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  59 

"At  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  was  set  this 
simple  home,  in  the  primeval  forest,  is  a  bubbling 
spring.  A  lone  beech  tree  today  stands  guards  over 
it.  Can  we  not  imagine  the  young  Nancy  wending 
her  way  down  the  hill  to  this  quiet  spot,  where  she 
quenched  her  thirst  with  the  sparkling  waters  and 
searched  its  hidden  depths  for  her  mirrored  re- 
flection ? 

"On  viewing  the  magnifiicent  monument  which 
the  nation  recently  erected  on  the  Potomac  at 
Washington,  to  suitably  commemorate  the  great 
Lincoln,  let  one  thought  be  given  the  woman  who 
shaped  his  young  life,  to  Nancy  Hanks,  his  mother." 

Mr.  T.  L.  Gantt's  Article. 

Here  is  another  newspaper  article  written  by 
Col.  T.  Lary  Gannt,  editor  of  the  News-Reporter 
about  thirty  years  ago.  This  also  coincides  in  all 
the  essential  features  with  the  other  stories.  It 
says :  "Nancy  Hanks  was  raised  in  the  Enloe  family, 
that  while  in  his  home  she  was  forced  to  leave  under 
unpleasant  circumstances,  with  which  Enloe  was 
named  as  the  responsible  party  in  the  case. 

Mr.  Enloe  was  never  known  to  make  any  denial 
of  the  accusation,  but  on  the  other  hand,  he  was 
known  to  make  all  the  necessary  arrangements  for 
this  girl's  care  and  comfort: 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

"There  is  no  question  but  that  Nancy  Hanks,  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  born  and  reared 
to  young  womanhood  in  Rutherford  County,  North 
Carolina,  and  the  martyred  President  has  a  num- 
ber of  blood  relatives  residing  there  today. 

"This  fact  is  well  known  to  the  older  citizens  of 
that  county  as  the  existence  of  any  other  family  who 
has  long  lived  there  and  whose  names  are  inter- 
woven with  the  early  history  of  the  county.  They 
will  show  you  the  old  cabin,  or  what  remains  of  it, 
Where  the  Hanks  family  lived  and  where  Nancy 
was  born  and  raised;  and  they  will  show  you  her 
blood  relatives,  now  living  in  that  Chimney  Rock 
section,  who  bear  such  a  striking  resemblance  to 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  to  impress  anyone  who  is 
familiar  with  his  picture  or  status.  In  nearly  every 
family,  and  especially  where  the  features  are  un- 
usually strong  or  marked,  the  resemblance  is  carried 
into  remote  generations;  and  there  are  few  physi- 
ognomies more  ruggedly  and  strikingly  marked 
than  those  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"During  our  summer  tour  through  the  mountains 
of  Rutherford  County,  with  Major  L.  P.  Erwin,  a 
prominent  citizen  and  journalist,  and  Mr.  John  F. 
Rowland,  a  real  estate  man,  Major  Erwin  halted 
our  team  in  front  of  a  little  log  cabin  and  called, 
"Halloa  I"     There    responded    to   the    hail    an    old 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  61 

mountaineer  whose  personality  would  attract  atten- 
tion anywhere.  His  stature  was  so  tall  that  he  had 
to  bow  his  head  to  pass  through  the  door  of  his 
cabin.  His  features  were  very  rugged  with  prom- 
inent cheek  bones.  His  hair  was  grizzled,  the  old 
mountaineer  apparently  being  about  eighty  years  of 
age,  he  was  clad  in  homespun  and  barefooted. 

"As  the  figure  approached  our  hack  we  felt  a  con- 
sciousness of  familiarity.  The  old  man  was  our  ideal 
of  one  of  those  early  frontiersmen  and  typical 
Indian  fighters,  who  carved  our  great  nation  from 
a  wilderness. 

"Major  Erwin,  whose  family  are  among  the  early 
settlers  of  that  section  and  knew  its  history  and 
every  family,  pointed  to  the  old  mountaineer  and 
asked  the  writer  if  we  had  ever  seen  him  before  ? 

"We  replied  that  while  we  could  not  recall  the 
old  man's  name  that  we  had  seen  him  often,  his 
face  being  very  familiar ;  that  we  had  probably  seen 
him  on  the  streets  of  Spartanburg. 

"  'Stranger/  was  the  reply,  'I  never  seed  you  be- 
fore that  I  can  call  to  mind,  and  I  ain't  been  to 
Spartanburg  or  nowhere  else  much/ 

"Major  Erwin  then  told  us  to  take  another  look 
and  see  if  we  could  not  tell  who  he  was? 

"We  replied  that  the  old  gentleman's  features 


62 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

were  as  'familiar  as  pig  tracks/  but  we  couldn't 
exactly  locate  him. 

"Did  you  ever  see  Abraham  Lincoln?  then  asked 
Major  Erwin. 

"No,  we  replied,  but  I've  seen  his  picture  hun- 
dreds of  times,  and  that  is  the  resemblance  I  tried 
to  call  to  mind. 

"They  do  say,  stranger,  that  we  look  powerful 
erlike,  and  I  s'posen  it's  bekase  we  sorter  kinfolks. 
My  grandmother  and  Nancy  Hanks,  Lincoln's 
mother,  wuz  own  born  sisters,  I  hear'n  my  grand- 
mother talk  erbout  Nancy  er  heap,  and  on  her 
death-bed  she  called  us  erroun'  'er  and  I  hear'n  'er 
say  that  she  allers  blamed  'erself  for  the  part  she 
took  in  makin'  her  folks  run  Nancy  off  to  Kentucky 
arter  she  come  home  from  working  for  the  Enloes 
and  all  that  talk  started. 

"We  talked  for  some  time  with  this  old  moun- 
taineer, and  he  impressed  us  with  being  sincere  and 
truthful.  He  did  not  seem  at  all  elated  at  being  so 
near  kin  to  a  President  of  the  United  States,  but 
evidently  looks  on  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  secondary 
object  compared  with  his  great  aunt  Nancy  Hanks. 

"After  we  had  left  this  old  mountaineer,  Major 
Erwin  stated  that  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  and  reared 
to  young  womanhood  in  Rutherford  County,  North 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  63 

Carolina,  and  the  old  man  we  had  talked  to  and  the 
martyred  President  are  great  first  cousins;  that 
Nancy  Hanks  has  a  number  of  blood  relatives  living" 
in  that  section  and  they  all  have  the  large  stature 
and  rugged,  boney  features  of  Lincoln. 

"Major  Erwin  said  all  the  old  citizens  of  the 
county  were  familiar  with  the  story  of  Nancy  Hanks 
and  the  reason  her  family  sent  her  to  one  of  her 
relatives  who  had  moved  to  Kentucky  and  where 
she  married  a  man  named  Lincoln. 

"The  Hankses  were  poor  farmers,  but  honest  and 
proud.  Nancy  took  service  with  a  wealthy  and 
prominent  family  named  Enloe,  whose  descendants 
are  now  living  in  and  around  Asheville,  in  this  state. 
The  wife  of  her  employer  was  a  very  jealous  woman 
and  accused  her  husband  of  being  too  intimate  with 
Nancy  Hanks;  so  the  girl  was  sent  back  to  her 
people,  who,  to  stay  the  tongue  of  slander,  packed 
Nancy  off  on  a  visit  to  a  Kentucky  kinsman.  The 
county  was  then  but  sparsely  settled  and  without 
mail  facilities.  The  only  messages  the  family  re- 
ceived from  Nancy  were  by  occasional  travelers. 
They  heard  of  her  marriage  to  a  man  named  Lincoln 
and  who  was  said  to  be  a  "poor  stick." 

"Many  people  in  Rutherford  County  believe  that 
Enloe  is  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  this 
cannot  be  true.     That  Lincoln  was  born  in  lawful 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

wedlock  history  proves.  There  was  a  sister  older 
than  himself,  both  children  born  after  Nancy  had 
been  sent  to  Kentucky. 

"We  see  from  the  Columbia  State,  a  few  days  ago, 
some  writer  took  upon  himself  the  useless  and 
ridiculous  task  of  denying  that  John  C.  Calhoun 
was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"But  we  are  entirely  satisfied  that  the  mother  of 
President  Lincoln  is  a  native  of  Rutherford  County, 
North  Caroilna  ,and  a  research  into  her  ancestry 
will  trace  Abraham  Lincoln's  lineage  back  to  those 
brave  and  hardy  pioneers  who  first  wrested  our  land 
from  the  Red  Man  and  then  won  its  independence 
from  Great  Britian.  There  is  no  doubt  in  our  mind 
but  Lincoln's  mother  was  a  native  of  our  grand  old 
North  State."— Col.  T.  Lary  Gannt,  editor  of  the 
News-Reporter,  Spantanburg,  S.  C. 

This  writer  was  not  very  familiar  with  the  early 
history  of  Lincoln  or  he  would  have  had  very  serious 
doubts  as  to  whether  this  could  have  been  a  child 
of  Thomas  Lincoln. 

Story  by  A.  DeK.  Wallace. 

Mr.  Wallace  is  seventy-eight  years  old.  He  is  call- 
ed the  best  historian  in  Rutherford  county.  He  is  a 
well  educated  man  and  has  been  very  prominent  in 
the  life  and  development  of  the  county  of  his  na- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  65 

tivity  for  many  years.  This  old  man  knew  person- 
ally the  old  people  who  saw  the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks, 
before  and  after  her  child  was  born.  He  says 
Michael  Tanner  was  the  father  of  Nancy  Hanks,  and 
that  Daniel  Tanner  was  her  half-brother. 

He  says  he  received  this  information  from  Wil- 
liam A.  Tanner,  one  of  Rutherford  County's  most 
prominent  men.  Nancy  was  placed  in  the  home  of 
Abraham  Enloe  on  Puzzle  Creek,  he  says,  when  she 
was  quite  a  small  girl,  and  grew  to  womanhood  in 
this  Enloe  family.  When  she  was  about  grown  she 
became  the  mother  of  a  child  and  Abraham  Enloe 
was  considered  its  father  and  the  child  was  called 
"Abe"  for  him. 

After  this,  the  girl  and  child  were  both  sent  to 
Kentucky,  and  later  the  girl  married  a  man  there 
by  the  name  of  Tom  Lincoln. 

"When  I  was  a  small  boy,"  says  Mr.  Wallace,  "I 
heard  some  of  the  old  people  talking  something 
about  lynching  Abraham  Enloe,  though  I  never 
understood  why  they  talked  about  lynching  him." 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OP  RUTHERFORD. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  4th  day 
of  December,  1926,  A.  DeK.  Wallace,  who  being  first 
duly  sworn  deposes  and  says :  That  he  is  the  author 


66 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read 
the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein 
stated  are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to 
those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and 
as  to  those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

A.  DeK.  WALLACE. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  4th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

ALICE  GEER,  Notary  Public. 

My  commission  expires  April  20,  1926. 

Story  by  Edmond  Davis  Dill. 
People  Stirred  Up  When  Nancy  Hanks  Fails  to 

Return  to  Enloe's. 

Mr.  Dill  is  from  Jackson  county  near  the  place 
where  Abraham  Enloe  settled.  He  is  seventy-eight 
years  old.    He  said: 

"When  Nancy  Hanks  was  missed  from  the  home 
of  Abraham  Enloe  by  the  neighbors,  the  citizens 
thought  that  Enloe  had  taken  this  girl  off  and  killed 
her.  They  said  he  was  gone  about  six  weeks,  from 
his  home,  and  finally  he  returned  without  her.  No- 
body knew  where  he  had  been  all  this  time.  The 
feeling  grew  among  the  people,  and  they  began  to 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  67 

talk  about  visiting  Mr.  Enloe  with  severe  punish- 
ment. But  just  about  the  time  that  had  been  set 
for  a  reckoning  with  him,  the  report  came  that 
Nancy  was  alive  and  was  the  mother  of  a  child.  The 
old  people  all  said  its  name  ought  to  have  been  En- 
loe, for  it  was  the  general  understanding  that  Abra- 
ham Enloe  was  its  father." 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  10th  day 
of  December,  1926,  Davis  Edmond  Dill,  who  being 
first  duly  sworn  deposes  and  says:  That  he  is  the 
author  of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled 
"Abraham  Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has 
read  the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  there- 
in stated  are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as 
to  those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief 
and  as  to  those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 
CLIFFORD  C.  CROW,  J.  P. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  10th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

Story  of  Mrs.  Martha  Keeter. 

Mrs.  Martha  Keeter  is  seventy-eight  years  old, 
was  born  and  reared  in  Rutherford  County,  North 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Carolina.  She  was  a  Bradley,  the  daughter  of  the 
late  Willis  Bradley;  and  says  she  had  often  heard 
her  father  speak  of  Nancy  Hanks  and  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

She  always  heard,  she  says,  that  Lincoln  was  born 
in  Rutherford  County,  and  knew  nothing  to  the 
contrary  until  she  was  a  grown  woman.  Her  father 
knew  all  of  the  old  associates  of  Nancy  Hanks.  He 
said  Nancy  was  raised  in  the  family  of  Abraham 
Enloe  and  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in 
Rutherford  County,  and  he  and  his  mother  were 
carried  to  Kentucky  by  a  horse-trader. 

Willis  Bradley  was  a  well-to-do  man,  and  owned 
a  goodly  number  of  slaves.  But  he  was  a  great 
friend  of  President  Lincoln,  and  believed  in  the 
policies  of  Lincoln,  who  was  then  a  Whig. 

Mr.  Bradley  was  frequently  taunted  by  members 
of  the  opposite  party,  who  said,  "Lincoln  was  an  il- 
legitimate ;"  and  there  was  no  way  of  answering  this 
charge,  for  the  old  people  all  knew  this  to  be  a  fact, 
said  Mrs.  Keeter,  but  "Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  person- 
ally responsible  for  what  his  parents  or  somebody 
else  did  before  he  was  born,"  her  father  often  said. 
Willis  Bradley  was  born  in  1805,  and  died  in  1904. 

This  story  calls  to  mind  the  statement  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  only  got  six  votes  in  his  home  county  in 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  69 

Kentucky,  and  the  reason  assigned  is  that  the  gen- 
eral talk  was  that  he  was  an  "illegitimate." 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  3rd  day 
of  December,  1926,  Mrs.  Martha  Keeter,  who  first 
being  duly  sworn  deposes  and  says:  That  she  is  the 
author  of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled 
"Abraham  Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  she  has 
read  the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  there- 
in stated  are  true  of  her  own  knowledge,  except  as 
to  those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief 
and  as  to  those  matters  she  believes  it  to  be  true. 
MRS.  MARTHA  KEETER. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  3rd 
day  of  December,  1926. 

ALICE  GEER,  Notary  Public. 

My  commission  expires  April  20th,  1928. 

Story  by  Gen.  Theo.  Davidson — The  Picture  On 
The  Wall. 

An  interesting  Story  by  Gen.   Theo.   Davidson  of 
Asheville,  N.  C. 
"Some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  a  lady  from 
Illinois  was  traveling  through  our  mountain  country 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

and  decided  to  spend  the  summer  here.  She  went 
to  Bryson  City  to  stop  at  the  hotel  and  found  the 
hotel  crowded.  Upon  the  suggestion  of  the  proprie- 
tor of  the  hotel  she  applied  at  a  nearby  cottage, 
where  she  was  very  cordially  received  and  was  given 
a  comfortable  room.  Being  shown  into  the  sitting 
room  she  amused  herself  by  examining  the  pictures 
and  various  decorations  on  the  wall  of  the  room. 
Among  others  was  a  very  lage  size  photograph  of 
a  strong  and  unusually  striking  appearance.  When 
the  hostess  returned  to  the  room  her  new  guest 
said,  "Aren't  you  a  southerner?"  "Yes."  "And  I  pre- 
sume are  Democrats,"  said  the  lady.  "Yes  of  the 
straightest  sect,"  was  the  immediate  reply.  "Then," 
said  the  traveling  lady,  "What  do  you  means  ?"  said 
the  hostess.  Whereupon  the  lady  pointed  to  the 
large  photograph  saying,  "I  have  seen  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  am  familiar  with  his  features  and  appearance, 
and  that  is  as  good  a  picture  of  him  as  I  ever  saw." 
"Why,"  said  the  hostess,  "that  is  not  a  picture  of 
Abe  Lincoln,  that  is  a  picture  of  my  grandfather, 
Wesley  Enloe,  who  was  born,  lived  and  died  on  the 
old  Abraham  Enloe  farm  on  "Ocona  Lufta,"  in  this, 
Swain  County,  North  Carolina."  In  connection  with 
this  story  General  Davidson,  eighty  years  old,  eight 
years  the  Attorney  General  of  North  Carolina,  and 
six  years  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  this 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  71 

state  said :  "I  was  born  in  the  vicinity  of  this  Enloe- 
Lincoln  tradition,  as  was  my  father  before  me,  my 
father  and  I  settled  the  Enloe  estate.  Mr.  Coggins, 
the  story  is  true!  It  is  true!"  The  old  General  said 
very  emphatically. 

Following  the  above  story,  General  Davidson  said, 
that  a  New  York  paper  sent  a  reporter  down  to  in- 
terview the  Enloe  family  in  regard  to  the  tradition, 
and  the  members  of  the  family  decided  that  before 
anything  was  reported  they  would  better  get  to- 
gether and  talk  this  matter  over  among  themselves. 
They  had  a  meeting  and  talked  it  over  and  the  de- 
cision was  that  there  was  nothing  that  they  would 
say,  pro  or  con  and  their  refusal  to  be  intereviewed 
was  understood  to  be  a  silent  ackowledgement  of 
the  truthfulness  of  the  story. 

Story  by  Preston  Bostic. 

Preston  Bostic  says  he  is  fifty-two  years  old.  His 
father,  McBryer  Bostic  bought  the  old  Enloe  farm 
on  Puzzle  Creek  when  he  was  a  young  man.  Mr. 
Bostic  says,  when  he  was  a  very  small  boy,  he  and 
his  father  stopped  on  a  trip  to  South  Carolina,  and 
stayed  over  night  with  an  old  man  at  Clifton,  South 
Carolina,  who  had  been  raised  on  Puzzle  Creek,  near 
the  old  Enloe  farm. 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-— 

This  man  was  a  Mr.  Wilkie,  a  very  old  gentleman 
who  said  he  had  worked  for  Mr.  Enloe  when  he  was 
a  boy  on  Puzzle  Creek  farm,  and  personally  knew 
the  Enloe  family  and  the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks,  who 
stayed  with  the  Enloes.  They  stayed  up  until  mid- 
night said  Mr.  Bostic,  talking  about  the  Enloes, 
Nancy  Hanks  and  her  child. 

The  old  man  related  an  incident  which  happened 
in  the  Enloe  family,  corroborating  our  Rutherford 
County  story,  in  some  very  interesting  points;  he 
told  about  the  "runaway"  marriage  of  a  daughter 
of  Abraham  Enloe.  He  said,  that  there  were  two 
Enloe  girls  about  grown,  and  Nancy  Hanks  was  just 
about  grown  at  that  time. 

Mr.  Enloe  had  gone  off  on  a  trip  and  was  away 
from  home  and  one  of  his  girls  ran  off  and  got  mar- 
ried. The  couple  went  up  Puzzle  Creek  about  two 
miles  to  where  a  preacher  lived  by  the  name  of 
Swable,  who  performed  the  ceremony  for  them. 
Then  the  couple  left  for  the  "West,"  and  their  first 
stop  was  at  Joe  Green's,  the  man  that  kept  the  post- 
office  on  the  road  or  trail  toward  Chimney  Rock. 
Nancy  Hanks  went  to  Rev.  Swable's  with  the  run- 
away couple,  and  when  she  came  back  and  told  Mrs. 
Enloe  they  were  married  Mrs.  Enloe  was  greatly 
worried  over  it  and  took-on  terribly. 

She  sent  for  this  Mr.  Wilkie  who  lived  near  and 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  73 

had  him  go  in  search  for  Abraham  Enloe.  After 
some  time  Wilkie  found  Enloe  at  what  was  then 
called  the  "Red  Tavern,"  on  the  road  between  where 
Spindale  and  Forest  City  are  now  located. 

Enloe  was  on  a  spree,  and  was  laughing  and 
telling  jokes  and  when  he  was  told  that  his  daugh- 
ter had  run  off  and  got  married,  he  didn't  seem  to 
care  very  much.  But  he  soon  was  ready  to  go  home. 
On  the  way  back  when  they  came  to  Second  Broad 
River,  they  encountered  great  difficutly  in  crossing 
the  river  as  the  bridge  was  gone  and  the  log  also 
on  which  Wilkie  had  "cooned  it"  on  his  way  to  the 
Tavern.  It  was  very  dark  and  raining.  They  had 
no  light,  and  simply  had  to  feel  their  way  along 
the  river  bank  trying  to  find  a  place  to  cross. 

After  failing  to  find  any  way  to  cross  the  river, 
which  was  now  rising  toward  high-tide  on  account, 
of  recent  rains,  Abraham  Enloe,  a  very  large,  tall 
and  sinewy  man  weighing  between  two  and  three 
hundred  pounds,  turned  to  Wilkie  and  said.  "I  am 
going  across!"  And  he  told  Wilkie  to  get  on  his 
back,  and  he  would  carry  him  across  the  river.  The 
plan  worked  admirably,  for  Enloe  being  very  tall 
and  with  Wilkie  to  weight  him  down  to  keep  him 
from  washing  down  the  stream,  they  were  able  to 
keep  their  heads  above  the  water  until  they  had 
reached  the  other  side. 


74  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

When  they  reached  home  they  found  Mrs.  Enloe 
down-stairs  crying,  and  Nancy  Hanks  with  her,  and 
the  other  girl,  Enloe's  other  daughter,  was  up-stairs 
singing  and  dancing. 

After  warming  by  a  good  fire,  Wilkie  told  Mr. 
Enloe  that  they  were  out  of  bread  at  his  home,  and 
Enloe  went  to  the  grainery  and  got  a  bushel  of 
wheat  and  Wilkie  took  it  to  Baxter's  mill  that  night 
and  had  it  ground. 

The  next  morning  there  was  a  big  snow  on  the 
ground.  Wilkie  went  up  to  Enloe's  and  Enloe  asked 
Mm  to  go  with  him  hunting.  They  started  out  walk- 
ing, the  snow  being  about  half-leg  deep,  and  they 
had  gone  just  a  little  way,  when  they  ran  across 
deer  tracks.  They  followed  this  trail  a  short  dis- 
tance to  a  small  strip  of  woods  between  two 
branches.  Here  two  deer  jumped  up  and  stood  side 
by  side  looking  at  them.  Enloe  said  "let's  shoot." 
And  at  the  crack  of  the  guns  one  deer  fell,  and  the 
other  leaped  off,  leaving  blood  on  the  snow  as  it 
went.  They  shouldered  the  deer  that  was  killed  and 
took  it  to  the  house  and  dressed  it. 
i  Enloe  insisted  that  they  had  killed  both  deer.  So 
they  soon  started  in  pursuit  of  the  other.  They 
saw  by  the  constant  flow  of  blood  on  the  snow  that 
it  was  badly  wounded,  and  after  they  had  followed 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  75 

it  about  half  a  mile  they  came  to  a  neighbor's  house, 
and  found  where  the  deed  had  been  skinned.  They 
said  they  thought  they  smelt  some  of  it  cooking, 
and  they  called  and  sure  enough  they  had  some  of 
it  in  the  pot  boiling. 

These  folks  said  the  deer  came  to  their  house  and 
fell  dead  in  the  yard,  and  they  offered  to  let  Enloe 
and  Wilkie  have  it,  but  they  took  one  hind  quarter 
and  the  hide,  leaving  the  rest  for  the  neighbor  where 
the  deer  died. 

Days  passed  and  nothing  was  heard  from  the 
runaway  couple.  Nancy  would  go  to  the  post  office 
on  horseback  and  ask  for  mail  but  no  word  was 
received,  and  the  Enloes  were  getting  very  much 
worried  about  their  missing  daughter.  About  the 
twelfth  day  Nancy  Hanks  got  on  a  horse  and  went 
after  the  mail  again.  She  was  not  gone  so  long  this 
time.  They  heard  her  coming,  singing — she  was  a 
good  singer.  As  she  came  up  to  the  house  she  was 
patting  the  horse  on  the  neck,  and  held  up  a  letter 
from  the  runaways.  They  had  gone  to  Tennessee, 
or  Kentucky  and  were  settled  in  a  home  of  their 
own. 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD,, 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  3rd  day 


76  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

of  December,  1926,  P.  V.  Bostic,  who  being  first  duly 
sworn  deposes  and  says:  That  he  is  the  author  of 
the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abraham 
Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian/'  that  he  has  read  the 
foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein  stated 
are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to  those 
matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and  as  to 
those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

P.  V.  BOSTIC. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  3rd 
day  of  December,  1926. 

S.  C.  GETTYS,  Notary  Public. 
My  commission  expires  August  27,  1928. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  77 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CAN  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  NANCY  HANKS 

BE  IDENTIFIED  IN  KENTUCKY  AS  THE 

MOTHER  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN? 


Now,  since  there  is  no  possible  doubt  about  there 
being  a  North  Carolina  Nancy  Hanks,  the  vital 
question  is  whether  she  can  be  identified  as  the  same 
person  who  appears  just  a  little  later  in  Kentucky 
as  the  wife  of  Thomas  Lincoln. 

1.  The  North  Carolina  Nancy,  according  to  one 
story  that  is  supported  by  a  monument  near  Bel- 
mont, North  Carolina,,  was  brought  from  Virginia 
as  an  "orphan"  about  the  year  1786. 

2.  This  Nancy  came  here  with  members  of  the 
Hanks  family,  and  stayed  in  the  family  of  Dicky 
Hanks  for  some  time  in  Gaston  County,  where  the 
monument  now  stands. 

3.  This  girl's  mother  was  called  "Lucy  Hanks." 

4.  The  North  Carolina  Nancy  was  reared  in  the 
family  of  Abe  Enloe  of  Rutherford  County  North 
Carolina. 

5.  This  Nancy  was  sent  away  from  the  Enloe 
home  under  very  embarassing  circumstances,  for 


78         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

which  Mr.  Enloe,  himself  was  held  responsible  by- 
Mrs.  Enloe  and  others. 

6.  After  the  birth  of  the  child,  which  took  place 
on  Puzzle  Creek,  Nancy  and  the  child  were  sent  to 
Kentucky. 

7.  This  child  was  called  "Abe"  before  leaving 
North  Carolina. 

8.  Its  mother  possessed  no  marks  to  disfigure, 
but  was  above  the  ordinary  girl  in  appearance;  was 
comely  in  form,  attractive  in  her  face,  a  girl 
that  everybody  admired,  and  was  unusually  bright. 

9.  There  is  a  tradition,  well  founded,  reaching 
back  to  Kentucky  that  Abraham  Enloe  hired 
Thomas  Lincoln  to  marry  this  girl  and  to  raise  this 
child.  This  was  among  the  very  first  things  heard 
when  the  first  histories  were  written  on  Lincoln. 
(Lamon) . 

10.  Abraham  Enloe  had  a  daughter,  a  Mrs. 
Thompson,  living  "just  over  the  line  in  Kentucky," 
where  the  North  Carolina  Nancy  first  made  her 
home  after  being  sent  from  North  Carolina. 

11.  Mrs.  Thompson's  son  is  said  to  have  held 
some  office  under  President  Lincoln  in  connection 
with  Indian  affairs;  was  an  agent  who  had  some- 
thing to  do  in  connection  with  disbursements  for 
Indians. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  79 

This  Thompson  called  at  the  law  office  of  General 
Theodore  Davidson,  in  Asheville,  N.  C.  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  in  conversation  with  General  David- 
son, Thompson  said  he  was  closely  related  to  the 
Enloes  of  then,  Jackson  County,  whose  large  estate 
had  been  settled  up  by  the  Davidson  Attorneys. 
Thompson  said  he  was  a  Democrat.  General  David- 
son asked  how  it  was  that  he  got  into  office  under 
President  Lincoln,  a  Republican?  Whereupon, 
Thompson  remarked  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  under 
some  obligation  to  his  (Thompson's)  mother,  re- 
ferring in  all  possibility  to  the  fact  that  Nancy  and 
"Abe"  were  cared  for  by  Mrs.  Thompson,  when  they 
were  first  taken  from  North  Carolina.  General 
Davidson  is  yet  living  in  the  city  of  Asheville,  and 
still  remembers  these  incidents. 

12.  This  North  Carolina  Enloe  who  reared  Nancy 
Hanks,  had  a  fight  with  Thomas  Lincoln  who  mar- 
ried the  girl,  and  in  this  fight  Lincoln  bit  off  Enloe's 
nose. 

Identification. 

1.  There  was  a  Kentucky  Nancy  Hanks,  a  part 
of  whose  early  life  cannot  be  accounted  for  in  that 
State. 

2.  She  was  the  mother  of  a  child  called  "Abe," 
before  she  married  Thomas  Lincoln,  as  Judge  Gil- 


80  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


more    of   Kentucky    and    Texas    testifies.   (Cathey, 
page  54) 

3.  Lincoln's  fight  with  an  Enloe  whose  nose  Lin- 
coln bit  off  is  almost  positive  identification.  This 
fight  caused  Thomas  Lincoln  to  move  from  Ken- 
tucky (Lamon).  And  Lincoln  believed  himself  to  be 
an  illegitimate  (Newton,  page  321).  These  facts 
were  written  up  in  Bledsoe's  Magazine,  and  were 
commented  upon  in  newspapers.  These  are  the 
same  people  who  had  the  fight  according  to  North 
Carolina  tradition. 

4.  President  Lincoln  said  his  mother,  Nancy, 
was  the  illegitimate  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks,  and 
a  well-bred  but  obscure  Virginia  farmer,  acknowl- 
edging that  she  was  an  illegitimate  child. 

5.  The  acknowledged  relatives  of  Nancy  Hanks 
in  Kentucky  are  the  same,  and  of  the  same  general 
reputation  as  those  of  North  Carolina. 

Prof.  Warren,  a  recent  author  on  this  subject, 
says  he  ran  across  a  court  record  in  Kentucky, 
where  Lucy  Hanks,  the  grand-mother  of  the  Presi- 
dent had  been  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  for  forni- 
cation in  1789,  in  Mercer  County.  This  author  in- 
troduces this  record  to  prove  that  her  daughter, 
Nancy,  was  in  Kentucky  that  early,  but  of  course 
this  record  will  not  prove  the  presence  of  Lucy's 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 81 

child.  This  is  assuming  too  much.  And  Prof.  War- 
ren says,  this  Lucy  that  had  been  indicted  was  the 
grandmother  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  This  Lucy  mar- 
ried Henry  Sparrow  in  1791.  And  her  sister,  Nancy, 
who  had  trouble  in  South  Carolina  and  was  the 
mother  of  Dennis,  was  married  to  Richard  Berry. 

6.  There  is  a  Kentucky  tradition  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  named  for  an  "Abraham  Enloe." 

7.  The  Kentucky  Nancy  is  discovered  in  the 
home  of  her  Aunt,  Mrs.  Richard  Berry,  and  the  mar- 
riage took  place  at  her  home.  Dennis  says:  "My 
mother's  name  was  Nancy  Hanks,  my  mother  and 
Abe's  grandmother  were  sisters.  Abe's  grandmother 
Was  Lucy  Hanks,  which  was  my  mother's  sister.  The 
Woman  that  raised  me  was  Elizabeth  Sparrow,  the 
sister  of  Lucy  and  Nancy  the  other  sister,  her  name 
was  Polly  Friend.  So  you  see  there  was  four  sisters 
that  was  Hankses." 

We  take  it  that  Dennis  knew  the  names  of  his 
mother  and  her  sisters.  President  Lincoln  had  evi- 
dently looked  this  matter  up  and  he  went  on  record 
in  1850  as  endorsing  what  Dennis  said  of  their  kin- 
ship (Warren  page  24). 

8.  There  is  a  North  Carolina  tradition  that  there 
was  a  community  settled  in  this  state  from  Vir- 
ginia, of  the  Hankses,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Thomas 

Lincoln's    grandfather,    the    Mitchels,    Berrys    and 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Shipleys.  This  settlement  was  founded  at  some 
place  on  the  Catawba  River  and  from  here  mem- 
bers of  this  colony  emigrated  to  Kentucky  in  about 
1780. 

Prof.  Warren  links  these  Kentucky  families  with 
North  Carolina,  quoting  from  Mitchell  Thompson's 
notes  as  follows :  "My  mother  was  a  Mitchel,  a  first 
cousin  of  President  Lincoln's  mother.  Their  mothers 
were  Shipleys  from  North  Carolina.  Nancy  Hanks, 
Abraham  Lincoln's  mother  went  to  live  with  Uncle 
Richard  Berry."  (Warren  page  67). 

Prof.  Warren  says :  "It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we 
do  not  have  some  trustworthy  information  relative 
to  the  characteristics  of  the  mother  of  the  Presi- 
dent."  And  of  Lincoln's  childhood,  he  says:  "Those 
who  have  attempted  to  tell  the  story  of  Lincoln's 
childhood  in  Kentucky  have  made  him  appear  as  a 
youth  rather  than  a  child.  They  have  related  in- 
cidents that  no  boy  in  early  childhood  could  ex- 
perience." (page  131,  140).  The  sequel  to  this  sit- 
uation is  found  in  the  suppressed  and  hidden  part 
of  the  life  of  Nancy  and  her  child  in  North  Carolina ! 
And  the  Kentucky  chronology  is  greatly  embar- 
assed  without  the  addition  of  these  first  few  years 
of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  for  a  full  discussion 
of  this  see  "Warren  Rejects  Best  Evidence,"  in  this 
book,  Chapter  14. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 83 

With  the  accumulated  circumstantial  and  cor- 
roborative  evidence   herein    offered   to  prove   the 
identity  of  these  two  Nancy  Hankses  the  burden  is 
shifted   to  the   party  who   rejects   this   evidence, 
making  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  offer  a  rebuttal, 
in  which  he  is  able  to  show  their  non-identity  by 
producing  evidence  that  the  North  Carolina  Nancy 
Hanks  did  not  marry  Tom  Lincoln.    This  cannot  be 
done.   From  the  viewpoint  of  two  Nancy  Hankses, 
both  having  boys  called  "ABE,"  before  they  were 
married,  and  both  being  connected  with  an  Abraham 
Enloe  and  their  husbands  named  Thomas,  and  both 
having  a  fight  with  an  Abraham  Enloe,  and  both  of 
them  biting  off  the  noses  of  their  antagonists,  to- 
gether with  overwhelming  circumstantial  evidence 
showing  the  impossibility  of  there  being  two,  we 
rest  this  case,  and  claim  that  they  are  identical  and 
the  same  person,  that  the  Nancy  Hanks  of  North 
Carolina,  with  her  little  boy,  "Abe"  is  the  Nancy 
Hanks  of  Kentucky  who  married  Thomas  Lincoln. 


84  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 

CHAPTER   X. 
THE  ARGUMENT  OF  CONSISTENCY. 


The  Kentucky  tradition  is  not  self-consistent.  In 
fact  it  is  almost  a  mass  of  contradictions,  as  has 
already  been  shown.  Dates  and  facts  are  changed 
or  set  aside  one  after  another  in  quick  succession 
as  they  fail  to  support  the  theory  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  born  three  years  after  his  mother  was 
married  to  Thomas  Lincoln  in  Kentucky.  And  these 
irreconcilable  discrepances  become  a  strong  argu- 
ment in  themselves  in  favor  of  the  truthfulness  of 
the  North  Carolina  story,  with  which  they  are  in 
perfect  accord.  The  Kentucky  story  is  a  case  of 
"Short  bed  and  narrow  cover!"  (Isa.  28:20) 

But  on  the  other  hand  the  North  Carolina  tra- 
dition is  as  well  articulated  as  a  jointed  snake.  It 
is  consistent  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  And 
yet  the  different  parts  did  not  originate  with  one 
person,  but  many  have  offered  their  contribution  in 
this  case.  Some  had  no  idea  of  what  the  others 
would  tell,  and  yet  one  part  fits  right  into  another 
perfectly.  When  witnesses  bear  testimony  in  a  case 
in  court  and  tell  the  same  story  without  having  been 
associated  together,  the  evidence  becomes  much 
stronger. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  85- 

In  this  case  it  would  be  utterly  impossible  for 
this  story  to  have  been  invented.  We  know  that 
there  are  imaginary  stories  but  in  every  such  case 
they  originate  in  one  mind,  or  minds  working  in 
collusion,  and  not  from  separate  and  different 
sources  as  in  this  case. 

Was  this  Tradition  Invented? 

Here  is  an  interesting  question  for  the  student 
of  physchology.  How  did  this  story  find  its  way 
into  the  minds  of  these  people  who  were  the  very- 
first  to  relate  it?  It  either  is  manufactured,  or  it 
is  a  true  story  in  whole,  or  in  part. 

If  it  was  invented,  there  must  have  been  some 
motive  for  its  invention.  What  could  the  motive 
have  been?  People  do  not  invent  such  stories  un- 
less actuated  by  a  very  impelling  desire  to  accom- 
plish some  end  worthy  or  unworthy. 

What  worthy  or  commendable  end  could  have 
been  the  cause?  Did  the  rehearsal  of  this  have  a 
tendency  to  benefit  anybody?  This  is  inconcievable, 
especially  in  view  of  the  very  unfavorable  light  in 
which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  held  during  these  early 
days,  when  one  endangered  his  own  life  by  speaking 
in  his  favor,  at  least  in  this  county. 

Was  this  invented  for  an  unworthy  purpose? 
And  what  could  that  purpose  have  been  ?    Was  it  to 


86  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

bring  reproach  upon  the  good  name  of  a  reputable 
citizen  in  the  person  of  Abraham  Enloe?  But  this 
is  an  incident  that  involves  the  honor  of  not  only 
Mr.  Enloe,  but  also  the  girl  who  is  thus  rudely 
dragged  into  such  an  embarrassing  position,  simply 
to  injure  Enloe,  which  is  altogether  unreasonable. 
And  the  same  can  be  said  were  the  motive  to  ruin 
the  good  name  of  a  girl.  This  would  be  impossible 
without  irreparable  damage  to  the  good  name  of  the 
man  involved. 

Then,  the  perpetrators  of  such  a  slanderous  story 
were  held  liable  before  the  law,  and  on  this  account 
this  theory  is  also  unreasonable. 

Could  it  have  been  invented  to  injure  President 
Lincoln?  Some  might  say  so;  but  this  was  told 
decades  before  Lincoln  thought  of  being  President. 
This  theory  is  utterly  preposterous,  for  Abraham 
Enloe  would  not  have  permitted  the  circulation  of 
such  a  story  without  causing  trouble  to  the  calu- 
mniators of  his  character  (if  he  had  been  innocent 
of  such  a  charge).  And  his  many  friends  would  not 
have  permitted  such  slanderous  statements  to  go 
unrebuked.  But  on  the  contrary,  his  sons  and 
grandsons  have  gone  upon  record  as  acknowledging 
that  the  story  is  true! 

The  theory  of  an  invention  will  not  meet  the  logi- 
cal demands  of  this  case.    If  it  had  not  been  true 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 87 

its  falsity  could  very  easily  have  been  proven.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  the  records  in  Kentucky,  instead 
of  refuting  this  story,  are  chronologically  in  accord 
with  it,  as  has  formerly  been  shown.  Since  the 
popular  theory  would  cut  off  a  few  years  of  Lincoln's 
childhoood,  as  is  done  by  Mr.  Warren  in  his  late 
book,  which  necessitates  consigning  a  large  part  of 
the  Kentucky  testimony  to  the  discard. 

Moreover,  a  collusion  for  the  purpose  of  perpe- 
trating an  infamous  libel  upon  the  good  name  of 
the  mother  of  a  man  who  aspires  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States,  involving  other  innocent  par- 
ties, is  so  villanous  as  to  be  inconceivable,  when  the 
character  of  these  people  is  taken  into  considaration. 
In  a  case  where  a  large  number  of  people  are  con- 
nected with  a  murder,  some  one  will  usually  let  the 
fact  be  known  at  some  time,  if  not  before,  usually 
in  a  death-bed  confession,  in  which  everything  is 
cleared  up. 

But  these  people  all  went  to  their  graves  con- 
tending that  they  had  told  the  truth!  Were  they 
all  liars?  Were  they  the  perpetrators  of  a  stupen- 
dous and  wilful  fraud?  Were  they  a  bunch  of  crimi- 
nals, who  were  permitted  to  go  scott  free  when  they 
should  have  been  placed  behind  iron  bars?  Answer 
this! 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-^ 

Now,  unless  one  is  able  to  furnish  a  good  and 
reasonable  answer  to  these  propositions;  or,  to  set 
aside  this  argument  by  submitting  a  demurrer  con- 
taining a  preponderance  of  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
our  contention  stands  unimpeached. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 89 

CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  LINCOLN-HANKS  STATUS. 


Notwithstanding  all  the  patching-up,  white- 
washing and  condoning  of  the  Lincoln-Hanks  status, 
by  the  late  historians  the  fact  still  remains  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  failed  miserably  to  do  his  duty  by 
Nancy  in  providing  the  most  elementary  comforts 
for  her  bridal-home.  She  was  handsome  of  feature, 
very  intellectual  and  the  neighbors  said,  "Was  a 
good  Christian  woman."  Then  why  did  he  not 
treat  her  better  and  show  a  little  more  love  and  re- 
spect for  his  first  wife? 

Her  illustrious  son  said  to  Mr.  Herndon  in  1351 
upon  receiving  the  news  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  death, 
that  "whatever  might  be  said  of  his  parents,  and 
however  unpromising  the  early  surroundings  of  his 
mother  may  have  been,  she  was  highly  intellectual 
by  nature,  had  a  strong  memory,  acute  judgment, 
and  was  cool  and  heroic.  This  same  biographer 
adds  that  ,  "From  a  mental  standpoint  she  no  doubt 
rose  above  her  surroundings,  and  had  she  lived,  the 
stimulus  of  her  nature,  would  have  accelerated  her 
son's  success,  as  she  would  have  been  a  much  more 
ambitious  prompter  than  his  father  ever  was." 


90  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


The  Dirt-Floored  Shanty. 

The  house  that  Nancy-Hanks-Lincoln  was  com- 
pelled to  live  in  and  call  home  is  described  by  Hern- 
don  as  a  "half -faced  camp,"  fourteen  feet  square,  of 
unhewn  logs.  One  side  was  open  and  it  had  no 
doors,  windows  or  floors!  The  furniture  was  in 
keeping  with  the  surroundings,  three-legged  stools 
answered  for  chairs.  And  the  bedsted  was  made 
of  poles  and  fastened  in  the  cracks  of  logs  on  one 
side  and  were  supported  by  forked  sticks  driven  in 
.the  dirt  floor  on  the  other.  The  bed  was  made  of 
skins,  old  clothes  and  leaves.  The  table  was  of  the 
same  make  and  finish  as  the  stools,  with  a  few  pew- 
ter dishes,  a  Dutch  oven  and  skillet.  This  was  the 
the  outfit  for  the  home  of  his  bride. 

Now,  people  of  ordinary  intelligence  know  that 
he  could  have  done  better  than  this.  And  to  say 
that  his  wife,  Nancy,  was  satisfied  with  this  con- 
dition is  unreasonable.  She  had  been  accustomed 
to  more  comfortable  surroundings  than  these;  in 
fact,  this  is  doubtless  the  poorest  excuse  for  a  home 
that  she  had  ever  seen.  And  it  appears  that  there 
was  little  or  no  effort  while  she  lived  to  make  any 
marked  improvement.  After  Nancy  died  and  he  got 
his  second  wife,  business  seemed  to  pick-up.  The 
change  seemed  to  work  a  transformation  in  Tom 
Lincoln.     And  although  all  the  credit  appears  to 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  91 

have  been  given  his  new  spouse  for  the  great  change 
wrought  in  him,  yet,  we  insist  that  there  was  an- 
other phase  that  is  worthwhile  to  consider.  Tom 
was  not  at  his  best  while  he  was  married  to  Nancy. 
He  was  "moody,"  or  sulky  and  pouty  with  Nancy. 
Chapman,  Tom's  step-son-in-law  reports  that  he  was 
very  brutal  in  his  treatment  of  little  "Abe." 

Berry  H.  Melton,  who  told  the  writer  that  he  had 
seen  Nancy  Hanks  many  a  time  at  his  uncle's  in 
Rutherford  County  where  the  child,  Lincoln,  was 
born,  said  Thomas  Lincoln  was  jealous  of  Abraham 
Enloe  and  would  "take  his  spite  out  in  whipping 
Nancy's  child,  and  upon  a  certain  occasion  she  in- 
terfered and  he  whipped  her  until  her  back  was 
bruised  and  the  blood  ran  down  to  her  heels."  This 
old  man  was  closely  related  to  the  Enloe  family  and 
knew  of  the  savage  fight  between  Tom  Lincoln  and 
Abraham  Enloe  on  account  of  beating  Nancy.  Some 
historians  mention  this  fight  that  Lincoln  had  with 
Enloe,  but  fail  to  go  into  details  of  the  matter, 
which  would  open  up  an  unwritten  chapter  in  the 
life  of  Nancy  and  her  noble  son.  It  is  not  an  unreas- 
onable supposition  that  the  almost  criminal  indif- 
ference and  neglect,  to  say  nothing  of  the  "brutal 
treatment"  was  induced  largely  from  the  knowledge 
that  this  was  not  his  child,  and  his  brooding  over 
the  situation. 


92  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

This  evidently  was  not  a  case  of  marrying  for 
love.  He  did  not  love  this  girl,  and  she  didn't  love 
him  to  start  with.  Love  would  have  fixed  up  that 
house  and  put  a  floor  in  it  and  made  everything  as 
comfortable  as  possible.  Love  always  shows  itself 
in  kindness.  They  were  ill-mated  and  should  not 
have  married.  But  Nancy's  encumbrance  likely  was 
the  reason  she  was  willing  to  marry  him.  She  was 
in  an  embarrassing  situation.  She  was  naturally 
his  superior  in  every  way.  In  that  case  she  was 
truly  the  better  half,  for  she  was  a  much  better 
woman  than  he  was  a  man. 

Lincoln  Tells  It. 

Just  before  the  Presidential  election,  in  the  fall 
of  1860,  two  men  from  Rutherford  county,  who  had 
spent  several  years  in  Illinois,  one,  a  Mr.  Davis, 
decided  to  return  to  their  old  North  Carolina  home 
on  a  visit.  Davis  had  become  a  very  intimate  friend 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  on  the  eve  of  their  leav- 
ing for  the  South,  Mr.  Lincoln  told  Davis  confiden- 
tially that  his  mother  was  from  Rutherford  County 
and  his  right  name  was  Enloe,  but  that  he  had  al- 
ways gone  by  the  name  of  his  step-father. 

This  story  was  given  to  the  late  Dr.  Egerton  of 
Hendersonville,  North  Carolina,  with  whom  these 
gentlemen  stayed  all  night  (Cathey,  page  86).     If 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


this  story  is  to  be  believed,  Lincoln  knew  who  his 
father  was.  This  embarrassing  situation  was  Lin- 
coln's "skeleton"  and  "inside  cancer!"  Nothing  else! 


94 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  LINCOLN  "CANCER." 


The  first  biographer  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  W.  H. 
Herndon,  who  knew  Lincoln  better  than  anyone 
else,  on  account  of  their  close  relationship  for  more 
than  twenty  years  in  the  practice  of  law  together, 
says  Mr.  Lincoln  had  a  "skeleton,"  and  an  "inside 
cancer,"  speaking  figuratively. 

And  after  the  historic  convention  in  Chicago, 
when  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  presidency, 
he  was  visited  at  Springfield  by  various  newspaper 
men  who  were  eager  to  get  an  opportunity  to  write 
something  about  him.  Among  these  scribes  of  the 
press  was  J.  L.  Scripps,  representing  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  who  was  anxious  to  write  a  history  of  Lin- 
coln's life.  "But  Mr.  Lincoln  seemed  to  be  painfully 
impressed  with  the  extreme  poverty  of  his  early 
surroundings,"  says  Scripps ;  and  Lincoln  deprecated 
the  writing  of  even  a  campaign  biography.  Lincoln 
said,  "Why,  Scripps,  it  is  folly  to  try  to  make  any- 
thing out  of  my  early  life.  It  can  all  be  condensed 
into  a  single  sentence,  and  that  sentence  you  will 
find  in  Gray's  Elegy,  'The  short  and  simple  annals 
of  the  poor!'    That's  my  life  and  that's  all  you  or 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  95 

anyone  else  can  make  out  of  it."  Scripps  says  that 
at  this  time  Lincoln  communicated  to  him  some 
facts  concerning  his  ancestry  which  he  did  not  wish 
to  have  published  then. 

This  secret  about  Lincoln's  "ancestry"  was  never 
made  public,  nor  told  to  anyone.  And  people  were 
left  to  speculate  as  to  what  it  could  have  been  about 
his  ancestry  that  Lincoln  did  not  want  the  public 
to  know.  This  is  very  significant ;  for  if  he  had  been 
taught  that  he  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy,  though  they  were  walled  in  with  poverty, 
there  was  no  justifiable  reason  to  keep  it  a  secret, 
when  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  wrapped  in  rags  and 
had  no  place  to  call  his  home. 

Mr.  Joseph  Fort  Newton,  author  of,  "Lincoln  and 
Herndon,"  says,  "Lincoln  thought  he  was  born  out 
of  wedlock,"  and  that  he  remained  all  his  life  igno- 
rant of  his  own  pedigree  (page  319)  though  we 
are  in  position  to  believe  the  fact  that  he 
knew  his  pedigree.  Hence  the  silence  and  sadness 
which  enshrouded  him  when  this  subject  was  men- 
tioned, and  the  significant  reserve  in  speaking  of 
his  origin.  The  above  named  author  says  he  was 
"ignorant  of  his  own  pedigree"  meaning  that  Lin- 
coln did  not  believe  he  was  Thomas  Lincoln's  son! 
And  he  was  right  and  Mr.  Newton  is  wrong!  He 
probably  was  told  who  he  was  named  for  and  why! 


96  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-^ 

No  doubt  he  was  told  that  Abraham  Enloe  reared 
his  mother.  But  late  biographers  have  tried  hard 
to  patch-up  matters  so  it  will  appear  that  he  was 
the  son  of  Tom  Lincoln.    This  is  literary  vandalism. 

Family  Resemblances. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had  so  little  in  common  with 
Tom  Lincoln,  that  there  were  not  to  be  found  in 
him  any  family  resemblances  or  traits  either  phys- 
ical or  mental. 

Tom  was  stocky,  heavy  and  muscular;  Abraham 
was  tall  with  legs  and  arms  apparently  out  of  pro- 
portion in  length.  Tom  had  no  thirst  for  books, 
could  not  read  or  write  a  word,  and  had  no  desire  to 
learn ;  he  really  despised  what  he  called  "edecation." 

Abraham  was  born  with  an  insatiable  appetite  for 
books.  He  loved  books,  he  borrowed  and  read  books 
by  a  fireplace  light.  There  was  no  natural  kinship 
between  these  two  men.  The  word  kin  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  means  "a  kind." 

As  a  large  stone,  a  mammoth  piece  of  granite 
that  may  be  seen  lying  far  down  the  Mississippi 
valley — all  alone  with  no  other  rocks  to  be  seen, 
was  not  formed  of  the  common  mud  or  material 
where  it  is  seen  today,  and  none  but  the  untutored 
ignoramus  would  insist  that  that  monolith  was  born 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  97 

where  it  now  lies,  embedded  in  Missouri  detritus; 
but  on  the  contrary  the  thoughtful  mind  will  begin 
to  search  far  and  wide  for  the  family  resemblance, 
or  kinship  of  this  big  rock  and  in  the  search  they 
find  the  identical  kind  of  stone  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  after  a  study  of  geology,  they  learn  that 
this  rock  was  carried  away  from  its  home  by  being 
frozen  and  hugged  tight  in  the  bosom  of  a  great 
sheet  of  ice  in  what  is  called  the  "Glacial  period"  of 
the  earth's  history.  So  it  is  with  Abraham  Lincoln. 
He  differed  as  much  from  the  Lincolns  as  the  rock 
did  from  the  mud  of  the  Missouri  Valley.  He  was 
not  a  Lincoln,  but  an  Enloe  of  Scotch  family  of 
teachers  who  were  trained  to  read  and  study  books. 
This  mental  trait  is  just  as  truly  a  heritage — the  re- 
sult of  breeding,  as  is  the  instinct  of  a  bloodhound 
to  run  a  man  or  a  pointer  to  set  birds.  From  this 
Scotch  family  there  have  sprung  congressmen,  min- 
isters, judges  and  physicians. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  knowing  he  was  not  a  Lincoln 
at  all,  disclaimed  any  relationship  to  the  General 
Benjamin  Lincoln  of  Massachusetts  so  frequently 
referred  to  by  late  historians  as  a  noted  forebear  of 
the  President.  (Herndon  &  Weik's  Lincoln,  Vol.  I, 
page  285) 

He  told  a  Mr.  Davis,  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  who 
was  a  close  personal  friend,    from  North  Carolina, 


98  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

that  his  right  name  was  Enloe,  but  that  he  had  al- 
ways gone  by  the  name  of  his  step-father.  (Cathey, 
Genesis  of  Lincoln,  page  86)  He  always  believed 
himself  to  be  an  illegitimate.  (Newton's  Lincoln  & 
Herndon,  page  321.) 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  99 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

SIX  COUNTIES,  GASTON,  RUTHERFORD,  BUN- 
COMBE,  HAYWOOD,  JACKSON  AND  SWAIN 
ALL     CONTRIBUTE     TO     STORY, 
INDEPENDENTLY. 


1.  Beginning  down  at  Belmont  in  Gaston  Coun- 
ty, we  find  a  monument  erected  to  Nancy  Hanks, 
the  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  This  marker  of 
granite,  a  picture  of  which  is  seen  in  this  book  was 
erected  at  this  place  several  years  ago  because 
Nancy  Hanks  when  she  was  a  little  girl  spent  some 
time  here  in  the  home  of  one  of  her  uncles,  by  the 
name  of  "Dicky"  Hanks.  This  tradition  says  Nancy, 
the  President's  mother,  was  born  in  Virginia  and 
was  brought  here  a  very  small  child,  called  an  "or- 
phan." 

2.  Next,  we  find  the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks,  in 
Rutherford  County.  Here  she  is  some  older,  going 
around  in  company  with  her  mother,  Lucy  Hanks, 
who  was  spinning  flax  for  a  living.  They  frequently 
stopped  and  stayed  at  Hollifield's  during  this  season. 
This  is  in  line  with  the  story  of  Dennis  Hanks  and 
President  Lincoln,  both  having  stated  that  Nancy 
was  the  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks. 


100  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

In  this  county  another  little  girl  appears  in  the 

story.     It  is  said  that  there  were  two  children, 

Nancy  and  Manda,  both  of  whom  were  "bound  out." 

Manda  in  the  home  of  a  Mr.  Pratt,  and  Nancy  in  the 

home  of  Abraham  Enloe  on  Puzzle  Creek. 

Here  Nancy  grew  to  young  womanhood,  having 
her  acquaintances  among  the  young  people  of  the 
neighborhood,  two  of  her  girl  friends  being  Nancy 
Hollifield  and  Polly  Price,  with  whom  she  became 
very  intimately  acquainted. 

It  was  here  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born,  in 
the  old  Enloe  home  on  Puzzle  Creek;  and  from  this 
place  the  mother  and  child  were  sent  to  Ken- 
tucky to  avoid  domestic  trouble  in  the  Enloe  home. 

Abraham  Enloe  was  held  responsible  for  the 
trouble,  by  his  wife  and  a  great  many  others  of  the 
community,  to  the  extent  that  the  people  threatened 
his  life.  Enloe  not  only  sent  the  girl  to  his  daugh- 
ter's in  Kentucky,  but  also  sent  funds  there  for  her 
support. 

3.  A  nephew  of  Abraham  Enloe,  B.  H.  Melton 
of  Buncombe  County,  a  very  old  man,  born  about 
1795,  told  the  story  to  this  writer,  having  had  per- 
sonal and  direct  information  in  regard  to  these 
facts.  His  rehearsal  is  found  in  this  book  as  a 
"Buncombe  county  tradition." 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  101 

4.  Then,  a  tradition  is  started  that  the  Hon. 
Felix  Walker  of  Johnathan's  Creek,  now  Haywood 
County,  is  connected  with  the  taking  of  Nancy  to 
Kentucky,  together  with  the  report  that  the  child 
was  born  on  Johnathan's  Creek. 

5.  Another  story  of  Swain  and  Jackson  Counties 
is  told  of  sending  Nancy  away  from  the  Enloe  home 
at  Ocona  Lufta  in  Swain  County,  under  embarrass- 
ing circumstances  for  which  Enloe  was  held  respon- 
sible, and  the  great  hazard  to  which  Abraham  Enloe 
was  subjected  on  account  of  the  girl's  long  absence 
from  Enloes.  During  this  absence  she  was  back  at 
the  old  home  place  in  Rutherford  County  which  En- 
loe still  owned.  And  also  a  counter  tradition  is  re- 
ported, that  the  child  was  born  at  Ocona  Lufta. 

6.  The  Tennessee  tradition  is  really  in  harmony 
with  the  North  Carolina  theory  of  this  case.  For, 
as  in  Kentucky,  everywhere  Nancy  stopped  with 
this  child  it  had  a  new  birthplace.  And  evidently 
the  little  party  stopped  at  some  point  in  Tennessee 
on  their  way  to  their  destination  in  Kentucky.  So, 
there  had  to  be  another  "birth-place."  And  this 
procedure  was  kept  up,  until  he  had  eleven  birth- 
places in  Kentucky  where  he  was  not  born!  If  he 
and  Nancy  had  just  stayed  a  while  longer  in  North 
Carolina  and  had  traveled  about,  North  Carolina 
could  have  as  many  birth-places  as  Kentucky.   And 


102  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 


while  we  are  willing  to  concede  the  fact  that  this 
omnipresent  child  was,  or  may  have  been,  an  hon- 
ored visitor  or  resident  of  each  of  these  eleven 
places,  we  must  insist  upon  the  starting  point  being 
located  in  North  Carolina. 

Following  the  procedure  of  Mr.  Warren  who  says 
he  "eliminates  all  of  the  eleven  places  except  one," 
in  Kentucky,  we  can  easily  eliminate  all  of  them 
and  then  some,  to  get  back  to  the  real  truth. 

And  such  is  necessary  to  make  Kentucky  tell  the 
truth.  For,  Warren  shows  from  his  chronological 
argument,  that  all  these  witnesses  who  testify  as 
to  the  boyhood  circumstances  are  in  error,  and  with- 
out these  added  years  from  North  Carolina  they 
could  not  possibly  tell  the  truth !  So,  we  have  rushed 
to  the  rescue  of  these  good  people,  even  including 
the  President  Lincoln  himself,  and  kindly  help  them 
out  of  this  terrible  predicament  by  producing  the 
lost  years  of  his  life! 

Of  course  there  was  another  item  of  great  impor- 
tance connected  with  the  birth  and  childhood  of 
Lincoln  according  to  late  historians  that  should  not 
be  overlooked.  There  are  lots  of  old  "grannie" 
women  who  are  only  waiting  their  turn,  to  perform 
the  first  aid  service.  It  was  a  peculiar  pleasure  to 
have  the  honor  of  putting  the  first  "clout"  on  little 
Abe.    So,  they  have  found  a  tradition  in  Kentucky, 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  103 

says  Barton,  where  an  old  lady  performed  this  ser- 
vice! And  the  same  is  true  of  the  North  Carolina 
story.  This  was  done  here  by  a  good  old  woman 
who  lived  to  be  about  a  hundred  years  old,  who 
claimed  that  she  was  not  mistaken  in  this  matter. 
No  doubt  this  was  done  a  great  many  times,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  again,  that  many  were  allowed 
this  gracious  privilege.  Although,  we  claim  this 
first  rite  was  solemnized  down  on  the  hill  long  since 
honored  by  his  name,  in  Rutherford  County. 

Truly,  the  greatest  piece  of  conglomerate  literary 
contradiction  to  be  found  anywhere  is  found  as  to 
the  birthplace  of  Lincoln  in  Kentucky,  as  may  be 
seen  detailed  by  Warren  in  Chapter  5,  of  his  late 
book  on  the  Parentage  and  Childhood  of  Lincoln. 


104  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN^ 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

WARREN  REJECTS  KENTUCKY'S  BEST 
EVIDENCE. 


In  setting  at  naught  some  of  the  very  best  testi- 
mony furnished  by  witnesses  in  Kentucky,  Prof. 
Warren  displays  either  a  weakness  or  a  lack  of 
candor.  Were  it  involving  a  single  instance  it  would 
not  be  such  a  gross  breach  of  literary  equity.  But 
no  justifiable  reason  can  be  assigned  for  thus  toss- 
ing aside  the  whole  list  of  the  only  people  who  could 
be  found  yet  living,  when  Mr.  W.  H.  Herndon  went 
to  Kentucky  in  1865,  to  gather  testimony  for  his 
book  on  Lincoln.    The  following  is  the  list: 

1.  John  Duncan,  afterwards  a  preacher  of  some 
prominence  in  Kentucky  told  how  he  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  ran  a  groundhog  into  a  cervice  between  two 
rocks,  and  after  working  vainly  for  almost  two 
hours  to  get  him  out,  Abe  ran  off  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  to  a  blacksmith  shop,  and  returned  with  an 
iron  hook,  fastened  to  the  end  of  a  pole,  with  this 
they  hooked  the  animal  out. 

This  witness  was  a  playmate  of  Lincoln,  who 
lived  on  Nolin  Creek  near  the  Lincoln  home,  and 
was  born  July  5,  1804. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  105 

Prof.  Warren  asserts  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  Rev.  John  Duncan  could  have  had  Abraham 
Lincoln  as  a  playmate,  before  he,  Abraham,  was 
"two  years  old,"  as  the  Lincolns  moved  from 
there  in  1811  when  John  was  seven  and  Lincoln  but 
two.  But  Prof.  Warren  only  counts  the  age  of  Lin- 
coln from  1809,  three  years  after  Nancy,  the  North 
Carolina  girl  had  married  Tom  Lincoln  according 
to  Kentucky  dates,  cutting  off  at  least  four  years  of 
Lincoln's  life.  Add  this  to  the  two  and  we  have 
these  boys  about  the  same  age,  and  are  not  too 
young  to  have  such  an  experience  with  a  ground- 
hog as  is  related  by  this  prominent  minister;  and 
you  may  mark  it  down  that  the  catching  of  a  var- 
mint like  this  would  be  one  of  the  last  things  these 
boys  would  forget. 

2.  Warren's  second  misfit  is  a  Kentuckian  by 
the  name  of  Austin  Gollahers,  born  in  1805,  who 
lived  about  two  miles  from  the  Lincolns.  This  man 
claimed  to  have  been  a  playmate  of  Lincoln,  and 
that  they  went  to  school  together.  And  he  gives 
an  incident  that  would  not  be  very  hard  to  remem- 
ber. He  says  that  on  one  occasion  when  he  and  Abe 
were  crossing  Knob  Creek,  Abe  was  trying  to  "coon 
it"  and  fell  into  deep  water  and  he  saved  him  from 
drowning.  But  Warren  don't  believe  this  story  be- 
cause Abe  was  too  young  to  have  been  out  running 


106  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

around  with  Austin,  and  the  story  is  so  unreason- 
able that  a  baby  just  two  years  old  would  even  try 
to  "coon"  it  across  a  big  creek !  But  when  Abe  gets 
back  the  years  that  have  been  concealed  he  is  able 
to  go  with  Gollahers,  for  instead  of  being  only  two 
he  is  at  least  six  and  possibly  a  little  older. 

3.  The  third  case  of  mistaken  identity  or  fabri- 
cation, by  the  Kentuckians,  according  to  the  Warren 
version  is  little  Abe  as  a  mill-boy.  He  is  reported 
to  have  gone  to  mill,  walking  seven  miles  and  carry- 
ing the  "turn"  on  his  back,  making  a  trip  compris- 
ing fourteen  miles  in  a  day.  Prof.  Warren  figures 
him  less  than  eight  years  old  at  this  time,  and  says 
Gollaher  was  mistaken  about  this  fact.  But  with 
about  five  years  more  to  replenish  his  strength  he 
would  be  able  to  perform  this  feat  with  comparative 
ease. 

4.  Pressley  Haycraft,  brother  to  the  historian, 
Samiel,  lived  at  Elizabethton,  Kentucky,  when 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  wife,  Nancy,  lived  there 
two  years  immediately  succeeding  their  marriage. 
This  man  comes  next  in  having  his  testimony  set 
aside  by  Warren,  who  says,  "Abraham  Lincoln  never 
lived  in  Elizabethton."  While  Mr.  Haycraft  says 
he  knew  him  there  as  a  "little  shirt-tail  boy/  who 
>cou!d  be  seen  about  the  courthouse  and  stores,  cling- 
iing  to  his  mother's  apron.     This  case  is  also  "dis- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  107 

missed,"  as  a  case  of  mistaken  identity  by  Warren. 
For,  according  to  Kentucky  chronology  Abe  was  not 
yet  born!  And  hence  could  not  possibly  have  been 
seen  by  this  witness.  But  if  he  was  born  in  North 
Carolina,  according  to  our  version,  he  was  just  the 
right  age  exactly  to  possess  the  status  filling  this 
description,  and  Pressley  Haycraft  told  the  truth! 

5.  Both  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Judge  J.  B.  Helm 
are  also  discredited,  because  their  stories  are  not 
in  harmony  with  the  Kentucky  theory.  This  judge 
who  at  this  time  was  a  clerk  in  a  store  in  Elizabeth- 
ton  says  he  "remembers  him,  Lincoln,  as  a  small 
boy  who  came  sometimes  to  the  store  with  his 
mother.  He  would  take  his  seat  on  a  keg  of  nails, 
and  I  would  give  him  a  lump  of  sugar.  He  would  sit 
there  and  eat  it  like  any  other  boy,  but  these  little 
acts  of  kindness"  observes  my  informant  in  an  en- 
thusiastic statement  made  in  1865  (To  Herndon, 
Lincoln's  first  biographer)  so  impressed  his  (Lin- 
coln's) mind  that  I  made  a  steadfast  friend  of  a  man 
whose  power  and  influence  have  since  been  felt 
throughout  the  world."  But  Warren  is  on  the  job 
to  get  this  statement  out  of  the  way,  for  it  don't 
fit  the  chronology! 

"Both  of  these  men  are  mistaken,  Lincoln  was 
not  there  to  eat  that  sugar,"  says  Warren.    But  the 


108  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

story  was  evidently  true  and  is  in  accord  with  the 
North  Carolina  story. 

Shortly  after  Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the 
Presidency  he  received  a  letter  from  Samiel  Hay- 
craft,  historian,  says  Prof.  Warren,  inquiring  about 
Lincoln's  parentage  and  birthplace.  "Haycraft," 
says  Warren,  in  his  interpretation,  "Was  under  the 
impression  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in 
Elizabethton  and  that  his  mother  was  Thomas  Lin- 
coln's second  wife.  But  Lincoln  replied  that  Mr. 
Haycraft  was  mistaken  about  his  parentage  and  the 
place  of  his  birth,"  though  Lincoln  failed  to  give 
either. 

Lincoln  met  this  necessity  diplomatically,  for  he 
knew  it  was  going  into  the  papers  and  magazines 
and  the  rehearsal  of  the  real  facts  at  that  time  could 
not  do  him  any  good,  and  might  do  harm  by  em- 
barrassment. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


109 


They  met  with  the  wild  Indians  on  Soco  Creek.  After 
considerable  parleying,  terms  of  peace  were  agreed  upon  and 
these  children  of  the  forest  became  great  friends  of  their 
white  neighbors.  Descendants  of  these  same  Indians  are 
now  living  in  this  vicinity  and  have  their  own  school,  at 
Cherokee,  supported  by  the  government. 


110  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

From  the  First  Edition. 


The  writer  of  the  following  story  was  not  aware 
that  anything  had  ever  been  written  as  a  demurrer 
to  the  popular  theory  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  ancestry  till 
year  1903.  I  was  spending  a  little  time  at  Waynes- 
ville,  N.  C,  and  a  Mr.  Linsey,  proprietor  of  the  book 
store,  said,  pointing  to  a  little  red-backed  book  on 
the  shelf,  "That  little  book  is  creating  quite  a  stir 
among  our  summer  visitors  and  especially  the  peo- 
ple from  the  North.  I  am  a  Northern  man  myself, 
but  that  book  will  revolutionize  this  country  as  to 
the  real  ancestry  and  birthplace  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "just  hold  your  horses  now  and 
let  me,  a  third  cousin  of  this  great  'Rail-splitter/ 
tell  you  a  few  things  before  I  know  anything  about 
what  is  in  the  book." 

And  when  I  had  told  him  that  a  great-uncle  of 
mine  was  the  real  father  of  Lincoln;  that  he  was 
born  in  North  Carolina,  and  that  another  great- 
uncle  of  mine,  a  playmate  of  Nancy  Hanks,  had 
told  me  the  full  story,  not  from  hearsay,  but  from 
his  own  personal  knowledge,  he  reached  up  and 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  111 

taking  down  a  copy  of  the  book,  said,  "Well,  you 
certainly  know  all  about  it,  and  I  will  present  you 
a  copy  of  the  book." 

Upon  examination  I  found  that  the  author,  Mr. 
J.  H.  Cathey,  had  taken  great  pains  to  secure  the 
evidence  to  prove  some  of  the  very  things  that  had 
been  related  to  me  by  my  mothers  uncle  many 
years  ago. 

Since  then  some  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Bun- 
combe County,  North  Carolina,  including  Col.  Foster 
A.  Sondley,  LL.  D.,  Attorney,  of  Asheville,  have 
urged  me  to  write  the  story  by  Mr.  Melton,  that  it 
might  be  preserved  as  a  Buncombe  County  tradition. 

Corroborative  Testimony. 

The  careful  student  of  history  will  find  a  corro- 
boration of  this  tradition  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Cathey,  and 
others.  In  fact  if  one  should  go  to  the  trouble  and 
expense  to  secure  the  copies  of  the  first  editions 
of  the  Lincoln  histories  one  would  find  material 
that  if  published  now  would  set  the  whole  country 
agog  with  astonishment. 

The  original  Histories  and  Biographies  have  been 
suppressed  on  account  of  the  fact  that  they  either 
told  or  hinted  at  the  truth,  that  Thomas  Lincoln  was 
not  the  real  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  that 
Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Carolina  was  his  father. 


112  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

We  find  the  following  statement  in  Horton's 
Youth's  History  of  the  great  Civil  War.  "He  (Lin- 
coln) had  the  misfortune  to  not  know  who  his 
father  was;  and  his  mother,  alas,  was  a  person  to 
reflect  no  honor  upon  her  child.  Launched  into  the 
world  an  outcast,  and  started  on  the  road  of  being 
without  parental  care,  and  without  the  advantage 
of  even  a  common  school  education,  he  certainly 
was  entitled  to  great  credit  for  gaining  even  the 
limited  mental  culture  which  he  possessed. 

"He  ran  away  from  his  wretched  home  at  the 
age  of  nine  to  escape  the  brutal  treatment  of  the 
man  who  had  married  his  mother  and  was  forced 
to  get  his  bread  by  working  on  a  flat-boat  on  the 
Mississippi."  We  now  believe  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did 
really  know  that  he  was  the  son  of  Abraham  Enloe 
as  he  is  reported  to  have  given  out  this  as  confiden- 
tial information  in  about  1860.     (Chapter  11.) 

The  first  edition  of  the  Life  of  Lincoln,  by  W.  H. 
Lamon,  published  by  J.  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  Boston, 
says:  "His  father's  name  was  Thomas  Lincoln,  and 
his  mother's  maiden  name  was  Nancy  Hanks. 

"At  the  time  of  his  birth  they  were  supposed  to 
have  been  married  about  three  years.  Although 
there  appears  to  have  been  little  sympathy  or  af- 
fection between  Thomas  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  they 
were  nevertheless  connected  by  ties  and  associa- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  113 

tions  which  make  the  previous  history  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  his  family  a  necessary  part  of  any  rea- 
sonably full  biography  of  the  great  man  who  im- 
mortalized the  name  by  wearing  it." 

It  is  claimed  by  the  critics  that  this  author  inti- 
mated that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  minus  a  legal  father, 
and  this  book  was  suppressed. 

In  his  first  edition  of  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, Mr.  Herndon  says,  "If  the  story  of  his  life  is 
truthfully  and  courageously  told — nothing  colored 
or  suppressed,  nothing  false  either  written  or  sug- 
gested— the  reader  will  see  and  feel  the  real  pres- 
ence of  the  man. 

"If  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  story  is  colored,  or 
the  facts  in  any  degree  suppressed,  the  reader  will 
be  not  only  misled,  but  imposed  upon  as  well.  At 
last  the  truth  will  come  and  no  man  need  hope  to 
evade  it. 

"Lincoln's  character,  I  am  certain  will  bear  close 
scrutiny.  I  am  not  afraid  of  you  in  this  direction. 
Don't  let  anything  deter  you  from  digging  to  the 
bottom.  In  drawing  the  portrait  tell  the  world 
what  the  "skeleton"  was  with  Lincoln.  What  gave 
him  that  peculiar  melancholy.  What  cancer  had  he 
inside?  Especial  attention  is  given  to  the  history 
of  his  youth  and  early  manhood,  and  while  dwelling 


114 - ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

on  this  portion  of  his  life,  the  liberty  is  taken  to 
insert  many  things  that  would  be  omitted  or  sup- 
pressed in  other  places  where  the  cast-iron  rules 
that  govern  magazine  writing  prevail. 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  my  warm,  devoted  friend.  I  al- 
ways loved  him,  and  revere  his  name  to  this  day. 

"My  purpose  to  tell  the  truth  about  him  need  oc- 
casion no  apprehension,  for  I  know  that  God's  naked 
truth  as  Carlyle  puts  it,  can  never  injure  the  fame 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"Some  persons  will  doubtless  object  to  the  narra- 
tive of  certain  facts,  which  appear  here  for  the  first 
time,  and  which  they  contend  should  be  consigned 
to  the  tomb.  Their  pretense  is  that  no  good  can 
come  from  such  ghastly  exposures.  To  such  over- 
sensitive souls,  if  any  such  exist,  my  answer  is  that 
these  facts  are  indispensable  to  a  full  knowledge  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  all  the  walks  of  life."  (Herndon  & 
Weik) 

Can  you  guess,  or  conjecture,  what  that  particular 
"truth"  was  that  this  writer  thought  some  might 
wish  to  "evade,"  and  in  refusing  to  tell,  the  honest 
reader  would  thereby  be  "misled  and  imposed  up- 
on?" What  can  such  strange  language  mean  if  it 
does  not  involve  the  very  thing  to  which  we  are 
calling  your  attention  at  this  time? 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  115 

It  is  claimed  now  that  this  original  edition  has 
been  suppressed  and  the  people  are  being  "misled" 
as  to  the  real  ancestry  of  this  great  American 
citizen. 

Speaking  of  Mr.  Cathey's  book,  Mr.  Coleman,  a 
Texas  writer,  says,  "It  is  proven  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  Lincoln 
at  all,  but  an  Enloe  of  Scotch  descent." 

Evidence  to  prove  this  fact  is  on  file  and  care- 
fully preserved  in  the  great  New  York  Library. 

Mr.  Herndon,  the  first  biographer  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
is  quoted  as  saying,  "A  number  of  such  traditions 
are  extant  in  Kentucky  and  other  localities,  one 
that  "Thomas  Lincoln  for  a  consideration  from  one 
Abraham  Enloe,  a  miller  there,  assumed  the  pater- 
nity of  the  infant  child  of  a  poor  girl  named  Nancy 
Hanks."  And  the  same  author  adds  that,  "A  gen- 
tleman of  Mount  Sterling,  Kentucky,  who  had  been 
Judge  and  afterwards  an  editor,  published  a  paper 
in  support  of  this  contention." 

Here  we  discover  a  Kentucky  jurist  who  sees  the 
pearl  of  historic  truth  being  "evaded,"  and  "col- 
ored," and  the  people  "imposed  upon"  for  the  sake 
of  a  false  modesty  and  pride,  and  he  takes  the 
matter  up  in  his  paper  and  rips  the  false  veil  from 
the  face  of  Truth.    He  had  the  courage  to  give  the 


116  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

people  a  chance,  who,  as  it  were,  had  stood  on  their 
tiptoes  and  peeped  through  little  knot  holes  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  this  great  man's  origin.  The  people 
know  there  was  nothing  in  common  between  these 
two  characters,  Thomas  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  They 
wanted  to  know  the  real  truth  about  this  matter. 
And  here  in  Kentucky  is  a  writer  who  tells  the  un- 
popular story  of  this  great  man's  ancestry. 

Mr.  Lamon  is  quoted  as  saying,  "There  was  an 
account  of  a  fight  between  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Abraham  Enloe.  They  fought  like  savages,  but 
Lincoln  obtained  a  permanent  and  signal  victory  by 
biting  off  Enloe's  nose. 

"This  affray  and  the  fame  of  it,"  continues  this 
writer,  "made  Lincoln  (Thomas)  more  anxious  than 
ever  to  escape  from  Kentucky." 

Mr.  Coleman,  in  his  small  book,  argues  with  good 
reason  that  this  fight  between  these  two  men,  one 
the  husband  of  Nancy  Hanks,  and  Abraham  Enloe, 
is  a  corroborative  proof  of  the  story  that  some  re- 
lation existed  between  Enloe  and  this  woman  and 
child. 

It  is  only  in  keeping  with  the  law  of  human 
nature  that,  if  Thomas  Lincoln  had  been  hired  to 
marry  this  young  woman  as  is  herein  related,  and 
he  had  been  getting  drunk  and  treating  her  and 
the  child  in  a  brutal  manner,  such  treatment  would 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


117 


naturally  be  resented  by  the  one  who  had  been  in- 
strumental in  bringing  about  the  marriage. 


ENLOE  AND  LINCOLN  HAVE  A  FIGHT. 


Thomas  Lincoln's  Jealousy. 

Moreover,  the  Lincoln  status,  in  itself,  would  have 
the  natural  tendency  to  create  a  morbid  jealousy  in 
Lincoln,  the  husband.  He  would  doubtless  watch 
with  keen  eyes  for  letters  from  Abraham  Enloe  to 
his  wife.  And  simple  expressions  of  kindness  or 
friendly  communications   from    this    source   would 


118  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

likely  have  been  interpreted  as  intrusions  and  a 
trespass  upon  the  sacred  rights  of  his  (Lincoln's) 
domicile. 

At  any  rate,  a  story  carried  the  information  that 

"Mr.  Enloe,  hearing  that  Nancy  was  in  dire  need, 
sent  her  as  much  as  fifty  dollars  at  one  time." 

Mr.  Coleman  goes  farther,  and  says  that,  "One 
Col.  Chapman,  who  married  a  daughter  of  Thomas 
Lincoln's  wife  and  as  a  neighbor  and  friend  of  the 
family,  who  had  been  the  custodian  of  the  family 
Bible  of  the  Lincoln's,  and  who  knew  as  much  about 
the  family  as  any  one  outside  of  its  immediate  cir- 
cle, says,  "Abe's  father  habitually  treated  him  with 
great  brutality." 

Such  unreasonable  treatment  of  this  child  is 
taken  by  this  author  to  be  an  expression  of  bitter 
enmity  toward  Abraham  Enloe,  with  whom  he  had 
the  fight,  and  the  knowledge  that  he,  Thomas  Lin- 
coln, was  not  the  father  of  this  child. 

This  savage  battle  between  these  two  men  was 
evidently  not  over  some  trivial  affair.  Naturally 
they  should  have  been  lifelong  friends.  But  if  a 
man  loves  a  woman  and  her  child  is  his,  and  he 
happens  along  and  finds  the  little  fellow  with  ugly 
bruises  on  his  little  body,  and  the  mother  can  in- 
tensify  the   situation   by    showing   great   bruised 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 119 

places  on  her  back,  inflicted  by  him  who  had  prom- 
ised to  love,  cherish  and  protect  her,  with  only 
"pine  straw  for  her  bed  and  no  floor  in  the  cabin 
and  with  little  or  nothing  to  eat,"  such  condition 
would  put  a  man  in  fighting  trim,if  anything  would. 
So,  it  was  reported  that,  "They  fought  like  savages," 
and  from  that  time  on  poor  little  Abe  saw  a  harder 
time  still.  He  doubtless  went  up  to  his  mother  many 
a  time  and  put  his  little  arms  around  her  neck  when 
she  was  crying  and  asked  her  to  tell  him  what  was 
the  matter.  The  record  shows  that  he  stayed  close 
to  his  mother  as  long  as  she  lived,  which  was  not 
very  long.  For  her  sad  heart  was  bleeding  at  every 
pore  all  the  time.  There  was  not  a  ray  of  joy  for 
this  woman. 

The  only  gleam  of  light  that  came  into  her  poor 
soul  was  that  which  was  shed  from  Bethlehem's 
Star.  And  when  little  Abe  was  about  nine  years  old 
his  sad-hearted  mother  called  him  to  her  bedside 
and  planted  on  his  tear-bathed  cheek  her  farewell 
kiss.  She  left  him  as  the  mariner  crossing  the  sea, 
to  that  tearless,  sunny  land  of  God's  great  love. 

It  was  then  that  little  Abe  wrote  his  first  letter. 
He  wrote  to  a  Methodist  preacher  and  asked  him  to 
come  and  preach  his  moher's  funeral.  And  "Par- 
son Elkins"  came  the  following  spring  and  con- 
ducted   the    service.     Lincoln    certainly    loved    his 


120  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-^ 

mother,  and  ever  cherished  her  memory  as  the 
sweetest  rose  that  ever  bloomed  along  his  earthly 
pathway.  He  was  not  ashamd  to  speak  of  her  as 
his  "Angel  Mother."  He  didn't  give  Tom  Lincoln 
credit  for  anything  in  his  make-up. 

The  sad  expression  that  was  so  noticeable  on  Mr. 
Lincoln's  face  may  have  been  fastened  there  when 
he  was  a  child,  suffering  those  awful  trials  through 
which  he  and  his  mother  were  forced  to  pass  under 
the  "brutal  treatment"  of  Tom  Lincoln. 

His  mother  evidently  read  the  Bible  to  her  boy 
and  taught  him  to  pray.  For  they  had  Bible  read- 
ings in  the  home  of  Enloe  where  she  was  reared. 
Enloe  was  a  Presbyterian,  and  his  home  was  a  stop- 
ping-place for  the  mnisters  of  different  faiths. 

This  man,  D.  M.  Coleman,  introduces  a  great 
crowd  of  witnesses  to  porve  the  same  thing  that  he 
says  Cathey  proved,  that  "Abraham  Lincoln  did  not 
have  one  drop  of  Lincoln  blood  in  him,  but  was  an 
Enloe."  These  men  represent  the  very  best  citizenry 
of  the  country.  We  feel  that  we  should  quote  just 
at  this  point  some  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Cathey's  witnesses 
as  to  whether  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Cathey  deserves  great  credit  for  the  work  he  has 
done  in  getting  up  this  evidence  before  the  old  peo- 
ple who  knew  the  facts  were  all  gone. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 121 

Unimpeachable  Testimony. 

"Phillip  Dills." 

Beginning  on  page  39  Mr.  J.  H.  Cathey  says,  "Mr. 
Dills  was  born  in  Rutherford  County,  North  Caro- 
lina, January  10,  1808.  His  father  emigrated  to 
the  mountains  of  Western  North  Carolina  almost 
contemporaneously  with  Abraham  Enloe.  Although 
Mr.  Dills  was  four  years  old  when  Jackson  whipped 
Pakenham  at  New  Orleans,  he  is  nimble  both  in 
body  and  mind.  He  describes  the  removal  of  the 
Cherokees  west  of  the  Mississippi;  tells  of  the 
elections  when  Clay  and  Jackson  were  rivals — of 
casting  his  first  vote  for  the  latter;  and  recalls  the 
personal  appearance  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  whom  he 
saw  and  with  whom  he  talked;  the  duel  between 
Sam  Carson  and  Dr.  Vance,  and  many  other  inci- 
dents of  early  days  he  distinctly  remembers  and  re- 
cites with  genuine  gusto.  Mr.  Dills  is  a  citizen  of 
Jackson  county.  His  post  office  is  Dilisboro.  He 
said: 

"Although  a  generation  younger  and  living  some 
twenty-five  miles  from  him,  I  knew  Abraham  En- 
loe personally  and  intimately. 

"I  lived  on  the  road  which  he  frequently  traveled 
in  his  trips  south,  and  he  made  my  house  a  stop- 
ping-place.    He  was  a  large  man,  tall,  with  dark 


122 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

complexion  ,and  coarse  black  hair.  He  was  a  splen- 
did looking  man,  and  a  man  of  fine  sense.  His  judg- 
ment was  taken  as  a  guide,  and  he  was  respected 
and  looked  up  to  in  his  time. 

"I  do  not  know  when  I  first  heard  of  his  relation 
with  Nancy  Hanks,  but  it  was  many  years  before 
the  Civil  War,  and  while  I  was  a  young  man.  The 
circumstance  was  related  in  my  hearing  by  the 
generation  older  than  myself,  and  I  heard  it  talked 
over  time  and  again  later.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Abraham  Enloe  was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln." 

"Walker  Battle." 

Mr.  Battle  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hay- 
wood county.  His  father  was  one  of  the  three  men 
who  came  to  Ocona  Lufta  with  Abraham  Enloe.  He 
was  a  highly  respected  citizen  of  Swain  county. 
The  following  statement  was  received  from  him  in 
1895.  He  has  since  died.  His  son,  Milton  Battle, 
a  reputable  citizen,  is  familiar  with  his  father's 
i  statement.  His  post  office  is  Bryson  City,  N.  C. 
Walker  Battle  said: 

"My  father  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this 
country.  He  came  here  with  Abraham  Enloe.  I 
have  lived  here  my  entire  life,  and  I  knew  Abraham 
Enloe  and  his  family  almost  as  well  as  I  knew  my 
own. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  123 

"The  incident  occurred,  of  course,  before  my  day, 
but  I  distinctly  remember  hearing  my  own  family 
tell  of  the  trouble  between  Abraham  Enloe  and 
Nancy  Hanks  when  I  was  a  boy.  I  recall,  as  if  it 
were  yesterday,  hearing  them  speak  of  Nancy 
Hanks'  removal  to  Kentucky  and  that  she  married 
there  a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Lincoln;  that  Abra- 
ham Enloe  had  some  kind  of  correspondense  with 
the  woman  after  he  sent  her  to  Kentucky — sent 
her  something — and  that  he  had  to  be  very  cautious 
to  keep  his  wife  from  finding  it  out. 

"There  is  no  doubt  as  to  Nancy  Hanks  having 
once  lived  in  the  family  of  Abe  Enloe,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  she  was  the  mother  of  a  child  by  him. 

"No,  I  never  saw  Nancy  Hanks'  name  in  print 
in  my  life,  and  never  saw  a  sketch  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, or  heard  of  him,  until  he  became  a  candidate 
for  the  presidency  in  1860." 

"William  H.  Conley." 

"Mr.  Conley  was  born  about  the  year  1812,  in 
Haywood  county.  He  lived  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  within  fifteen  miles  of  Abraham  Enloe's.  He 
was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  perfect  veracity.  The 
following  statement,  the  original  of  which  is  in  the 
writer's  possession,  was  obtained  from  him  in  1895. 
He  has  since  died. 


124  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Mr.  Conley  said :  "My  father,  James  Conley,  was 
the  first  white  man  to  settle  on  the  creek  in  this 
(Swain)   county  which  bears  his  name. 

"Abraham  Enloe  was  one  of  the  first  to  settle  on 
Ocona  Lufta.  Enloe  and  my  father  were  warm 
friends.  I  knew  Abe  Enloe  myself  well.  He  was 
an  impressive  looking  man.  On  first  sight  you  were 
compelled  to  think  that  there  was  something  ex- 
traordinary in  him,  and  when  you  became  acquain- 
ted with  him  your  first  impression  was  confirmed. 
He  was  far  above  the  average  man  in  mind. 

"As  to  the  tradition :  I  remember  when  I  was  a 
lad,  on  one  occasion  some  of  the  women  of  the  set- 
tlement were  at  my  father's  house,  and  in  conver- 
sation with  my  mother  they  had  a  great  deal  to  say 
about  some  trouble  that  had  occurred  between  Abe 
Enloe  and  a  girl  they  called  Nancy  Hanks,  who  had 
at  some  time  stayed  at  Enloe's.  I  heard  nothing 
more,  as  I  now  remember,  about  the  matter,  until 
the  year  before  the  war,  the  news  came  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  had  been  nominated  for  the  presidency, 
when  it  was  the  common  understanding  among  the 
older  people  that  Lincoln  was  the  son  of  Abe  Enloe 
by  Nancy  Hanks. 

"Not  one  of  them  up  to  that  time  had  ever  seen 
a  written  account  of  Lincoln.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Nancy  Hanks  lived  at  Abraham  Enloe's.    *    * 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  125 

To  quell  a  family  disturbance  Enloe  had  her  moved 
to  Kentucky,  just  as  my  father  and  mother  and 
others  have  time  and  again  related  in  my  hearing. 
"I  have  no  doubt  that  Abe  Enloe  was  the  father 
of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

"Captain  Ep.  Everett." 

"Captain  Everett  was  born  April  4,  1830,  in  Davy 
Crockett's  native  county,  Tennessee.  He  came  to 
what  was  then  Jackson,  now  Swain  county,  in  the 
late  fifties,  and  has  since  lived  within  twelve  miles 
of  the  Abe  Enloe  homestead.  He  was  captain  of 
Company  E,  Third  Tennessee.  He  served  through 
the  entire  war,  showing  conspicuous  courage  at  First 
Manassas.  He  helped  to  organize  the  county  of 
Swain,  in  1871.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention  of  1875,  that  amended  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  State.  He  has  been  magistrate, 
mayor  of  the  town  of  Bryson  City,  and  sheriff  of 
the  county.  He  is  well  known  throughout  the  State 
as  one  of  her  best  and  brainiest  citizens.  He  said: 

"In  time  of  the  war,  in  conversation  with  various 
old  and  reliable  citizens,  I  learned  that  Abe  Lincoln's 
mother,  Nancy  Hanks,  once  lived  in  the  family  of 
Abe  Enloe  and  was  sent  from  there  to  Kentucky 
to  be  delivered  of  a  child.  The  cause  of  her  re- 
moval to  Kentucky  was  a  threatened  row  between 


126 - ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Abe  Enloe  and  Mrs.  Enloe,  his  wife.  The  people  in 
this  county — all  the  old  people  with  whom  I  talked 
— were  familiar  with  the  girl  as  Nancy  Hanks. 

"This  subject  was  not  only  the  common  country 
rumor,  but  I  saw  it  similarly  rehearsed  in  the  local 
newspapers  of  the  time.  I  have  no  doubt  of  its 
truth."  This  witness  thought  the  girl  was  sent  di- 
rectly to  Kentucky,  but  she  "detoured"  and  came 
to  Rutherford  county  where  the  child  was  born. 

"Captain  James  W.  Terrell/' 

"Captain  Terrell  was  born  in  Rutherford  county, 
North  Carolina,  the  last  day  of  the  year,  1829.  At 
the  age  of  sixteen  he  came  to  Haywood,  where  he 
lived  with  his  grandfather,  Wm.  D.  Kirkpatrick, 
until  1852,  when  he  joined  himself  in  business  with 
Col.  Wm.  H.  Thomas,  a  man  of  great  shrewdness 
and  enterprise.  In  1854  he  was  made  disbursing 
agent  to  the  North  Carolina  Cherokees.  In  1862  he 
enlisted  in  the  Confederate  service  as  lieutenant  in 
a  company  of  Cherokee  Indians.  Later  he  was 
promoted.  Since  the  war  he  has  merchandised  and 
been  a  railroad  contractor.  He  has  represented  his 
county  in  the  legislature  and  filled  other  offices  of 
trust  and  honor.  He  is  recognized  throughout 
Western  North  Carolina  as  a  most  excellent  and 
useful  citizen.    He  said:     "Having  personally  had 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  127 

some  hints  from  the  Enloes,  of  Jackscn  and  Swain, 
with  whom  I  am  intimately  acquainted,  my  atten- 
tion was  seriously  drawn  to  the  subject  by  an  ar- 
ticle in  Bledsoe's  Review,  in  which  the  writer  gives 
an  account  of  a  difficulty  between  Mr.  Licoln's 
father  and  a  man  named  Enloe. 

"I  then  began  to  inquire  into  the  matter  and  had 
no  difficulty  in  arriving  at  the  following  indisputable 
facts,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  the  following  old 
people:  The  late  Dr.  John  Mingus,  son-in-law  to 
Abraham  Enloe;  his  widow,  Mrs.  Polly  Mingus, 
daughter  of  Abraham  Enloe  (lately  deceased),  and 
their  son,  Abram  Mingus,  who  still  lives ;  also  to  the 
late  William  Farley  and  the  late  Hon.  William  H. 
Thomas,  besides  many  other  very  old  people,  all  of 
whom  I  believe  are  now  dead: 

"First.  Some  time  about  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  a  young  "orphan"  girl  was  em- 
ployed in  the  family  of  Abraham  Enloe,  then  of 
Rutherford  county,  N.  C.  Her  position  in  the  fam- 
ily was  nearly  that  of  a  member,  she  having  been 
an  orphan  with  no  relatives  that  she  knew.  Her 
name  was  undoubtedly  Nancy  Hanks. 

"Abraham  Enloe  moved  about  the  year  1305  from 
Rutherford,  stopping  first  for  a  short  while  on  Soco 
Creek,  but  eventually  settled  on  the  Ocona  Lufta, 
where  his  son,  Wesley  M.  Enloe  now  resides,  then 


128  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Buncombe,  afterward  Haywood,  later  Jackson,  and 

now  Swain  county. 

"Second.  Some  time  after  settling  on  the  Ocona 
Lufta  Miss  Hanks  became  enceiente,  and  a  family 
breeze  resulted  and  Nancy  Hanks  was  sent  to  Ken- 
tucky. 

"Third.  She  was  accompanied  to  Kentucky  by 
or  through  the  instrumentality  of  Hon.  Felix 
Walker,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from  the 
Euncombe  district. 

"There  is  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  these  state- 
ments. They  were  all  of  them  well  known  to  a  gen- 
eration just  passed  away  and  with  many  of  whom 
I  was  well  and  intimately  acquainted.  The  follow- 
ing I  give  as  it  came  to  me:  'A  probable  reason  for 
sending  the  girl,  Nancy  Hanks,  to  Kentucky  was 
that  at  that  time  some  of  the  Enloe  kindred  were 
living  there.  I  was  informed  that  a  report  reached 
here  that  she  was  married  soon  after  reaching* 
Kentucky.' 

"Mrs.  Enloe's  maiden  name  was  Egerton,  and  she 
was  a  native  of  Rutherford  county.  Some  years 
ago,  meeting  with  Dr.  Egerton,  of  Hendersonville, 
and  finding  that  he  was  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Enloe, 
our  conversation  drifted  toward  the  Enloe  family, 
and  he  imparted  to  me  the  following: 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  129 

"Some  time  in  the  early  fifties  two  young  men  of 
Rutherford  county  moved  to  Illinois  and  settled  in 
or  near  Springfield.  One  of  them,  whose  name  was 
Davis,  became  intimately  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. In  the  fall  of  1860,  just  before  the  presidential 
election,  Mr.  Davis  and  his  friend  paid  a  visit  back 
to  Rutherford  and  spent  a  night  with  Dr.  Egerton. 
Of  course  the  candidates  for  the  presidency  would 
be  discussed.  Mr.  Davis  told  Dr.  Egerton  that  in 
a  private  and  confidential  talk  which  he  had  with 
Mr.  Lincoln  the  latter  told  him  that  he  was  of 
southern  extraction;  that  his  right  name  was,  or 
ought  to  have  been  Enloe,  but  that  he  had  always 
gone  by  the  name  of  his  step-father. 

"Mr.  Enloe's  Christian  name  was  Abram,  and  if 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  son  he  was  not  unlikely  named 
for  him. 

"About  the  time  of  the  famous  contest  between 
Lincoln  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Hon.  Wm.  H. 
Seward  franked  to  me  a  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln's, 
made  in  that  campaign,  entitled:  'Speech  of  Hon. 
Abram  Lincoln/  He  himself  invariably  signed  his 
name  'A.  Lincoln.' 

"To  my  mind,  taking  into  consideration  the  un- 
questioned fact  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  an  inmate 
of  Abram  Enloe's  family;  That  while  there  she  be- 
came enciente ;  that  she  went  to  Kentucky  and  there 


130  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

married  an  obscure  man  named  Lincoln,  the  story 
is  highly  probable  indeed,  and  when  fortified  with 
the  wonderful  likeness  between  Wesley  M.  Enloe, 
legitimate  son  of  Abraham  Enloe,  and  Mr.  Lincoln, 
I  cannot  resist  the  conviction  that  they  are  sons  of 
the  same  sire.  A  photo  of  either  might  be  passed 
on  the  family  of  the  other  as  their  genuine  head." 
This  witness  thinks  Nancy  was  accompanied  by 
Felix  Walker  to  Kentucky,  but  it  is  more  probable 
that  Mr.  Walker  took  the  girl  back  to  Rutherford 
county  where  she  was  reared,  where  Enloe  yet 
owned  the  old  home  place.  Walker  still  had  busi- 
ness interests,  and  many  friends  here.  Other  parties 
took  her  and  the  child  to  Kentucky.  She  is  still 
known  as  an  "orphan." 

"Hon.  Wm.  A.  Dills." 

"Mr.  Dills  is  a  native  of  Jackson  county,  North 
Carolina,  and  resides  in  the  thriving  little  town 
which  was  named  in  his  honor — Dillsboro.  He  is 
an  intelligent,  progressive  citizen.  His  people  have 
honored  him  with  place  and  power.  He  has  repre- 
sented his  county  in  the  lower  house  of  the  legis- 
lature.   He  said: 

"My  information  with  regard  to  the  subject,  so 
far  as  this  country  is  concerned,  is  traditional,  as 
the  events  named  occurred  long  before  I  was  born. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  131 

"Several  years  ago,  while  I  was  teaching  school 
in  the  State  of  Missouri,  I  read  a  sketch  of  the  life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which  ran  as  follows:  'Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  born  in  the  State  of  Kentucky, 
of  a  woman  whose  name  was  Nancy  Hanks  or 
Nancy  Savage.  His  father  is  supposed  to  have  been 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Enloe.  When  the  boy  was 
eight  years  old  his  mother  married  an  old  man  by 
the  name  of  Lincoln,  whose  profession  was  rail- 
splitting.  Soon  after  the  marriage  he  took  a  large 
contract  of  splitting  rails  in  the  State  of  Illinois, 
where  he  took  the  boy  and  his  mother,  and  the  boy 
assumed  the  name  of  Lincoln/  The  above  is  a  ver- 
batim quotation  of  the  sketch  that  far. 

"On  my  return  from  Missouri  I  took  occasion  to 
investigate  the  old  tradition  to  my  own  satisfaction. 
I  found  that  Nancy  Hanks  once  lived  with  Abraham 
Enloe,  in  the  county  of  Buncombe  (now  Swain) ,  and 
while  there  became  involved  with  Enloe ;  a  child  was 
iminent,  if  it  had  not  been  born,  and  Nancy  Hanks 
was  conveyed  to  Kentucky. 

"The  public  may  read  in  Wesley  M.  Enloe,  son  of 
Abraham  Enloe,  a  walking  epistle  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. If  there  is  any  reliance  to  be  placed  in  tradition 
of  the  strongest  class  they  are  half-brothers.  I 
have  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  the  tradition  is 
true. 


132  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

"For  further  information,  I  refer  you  to  Col. 
Allen  T.  Davidson,  of  Asheville." 

"Joseph  A.  Collins." 

"Mr.  Collins  is  fifty-six  years  of  age  and  resides 
in  the  town  of  Clyde,  in  Haywood  county.  He  served 
three  years  of  the  war  between  the  states  as  a  pri- 
vate, after  which  he  was  promoted  to  the  second 
lieutenancy  of  his  company,  in  which  capacity  he 
continued  until  the  surrender.  He  has  been  in  the 
mercantile  business  for  twenty-five  years,  ten  years 
of  which  he  was  a  traveling  salesman.  He  is  now 
proprietor  of  a  hardware  store  in  his  home  town. 
He  is  well  known  over  the  entire  western  part  of 
the  State  as  a  gentleman  of  the  most  unquestionable 
integrity. 

He  said :  "The  first  I  knew  of  any  tradition  being 
connected  with  Abraham  Lincoln's  origin  on  his 
father's  side  was  in  1867.  At  that  time  I  was  in 
Texas,  and  while  there  I  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Judge  Gilmore,  an  old  gentleman  who  lived  three 
miles  from  Fort  Worth. 

"He  told  me  he  knew  Nancy  Hanks  before  she 
married,  and  that  she  then  had  a  child  she  called 
"Abraham."  Judge  Gilmore  said  she  married  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Lincoln,  a  whisgy  distiller. 
'Lincoln/  he  said,  'was  a  very  poor  man,  and  they 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  133 

lived  in  a  small  log  house/ 

"  'After  Nancy  Hanks  was  married  to  Lincoln,' 
said  Gilmore,  'the  boy  was  known  by  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  He  said  that  Abraham's  mother, 
when  the  boy  was  about  eight  years  old,  died.  Judge 
Gilmore  said  he  himself  was  five  or  six  years  older 
than  Abraham  Lincoln;  that  he  knew  him  well; 
attended  the  same  school  with  him.  He  said  Lincoln 
was  a  bright  boy  and  learned  very  rapidly ;  was  the 
best  boy  to  work  he  had  ever  known. 

"He  said  he  knew  Lincoln  until  he  was  almost 
grown,  when  he,  Gilmore,  moved  to  Texas.  During 
his  residence  in  Texas  he  was  elected  judge  of  the 
county  court.  He  was  an  intelligent,  responsible 
man.  "Years  ago  I  was  traveling  for  a  house  in 
Knoxville.  On  Turkey  creek,  in  Buncombe  county, 
North  Carolina,  I  met  an  old  gentleman  whose  name 
was  Phillis  Wells.  He  told  me  that  he  knew  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  the  son  of  Abraham  Enloe,  who 
lived  on  Ocona  Lufta. 

"Wells  said  he  was  then  ninety  years  of  age.  When 
he  was  a  young  man  he  traveled  over  the  country 
and  sold  tinware  and  bought  furs,  feathers  and  gin- 
seng for  William  Johnston,  of  Waynesville.  He 
said  he  often  stopped  with  Abraham  Enloe.  On  one 
occasion  he  called  to  stay  over  night,  as  was  his 
custom,  when  Abraham  Enloe  came  out  and  went 


134  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

with  him  to  the  barn  to  put  up  his  horse,  and  while 
there  Enloe  said: 

"  'My  wife  is  mad;  about  to  tear  up  the  place; 
she  has  not  spoken  to  me  in  two  weeks,  and  I  wanted 
to  tell  you  about  it  before  you  went  into  the  house/ 
Then,  remarked  Wells:  'I  said  what  is  the  matter?' 
and  Abraham  Enloe  replied:  'The  trouble  is  about 
Nancy  Hanks,  a  hired  girl  we  have  living  with  us/ 
Wells  said  he  stayed  all  night,  and  that  Mrs.  Enloe 
did  not  speak  to  her  husband  while  he  was  there. 
He  said  he  knew  Nancy  Hanks  there,  that  she  was 
a  good  looking  girl,  and  seemed  to  be  smart  for 
business. 

"Wells  said  before  he  got  back  there  on  his  next 
trip  that  Abraham  Enloe  had  sent  Nancy  Hanks  to 
Jonathan's  Creek  and  hired  a  family  there  to  take 
care  of  her;  that  later  a  child  was  born  to  Nancy 
Hanks,  and  she  named  him  Abraham.  Meantime 
the  trouble  in  Abraham  Enloe's  family  had  not  aba- 
ted. As  soon  as  Nancy  Hanks  was  able  to  travel, 
Abraham  Enloe  hired  a  man  to  take  her  and  her 
child  out  of  the  country,  in  order  to  restore  quiet 
and  peace  at  home.  He  said  he  sent  her  to  some 
of  his  relatives  near  the  State  line  in  Kentucky. 
He  said  Nancy  and  the  child  were  cared  for  by  En- 
loe's relatives  until  she  married  a  fellow  by  the  name 
of  Lincoln. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN, 135 

"I  asked  the  old  gentleman  if  he  really  believed 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of  Abraham  Enloe, 
and  he  replied :  'I  know  it,  and  if  I  did  not  know  it 
I  would  not  tell  it.' 

"I  made  special  inquiry  about  the  character  of 
Wells,  and  everyone  said  that  he  was  an  honest  and 
truthful  man  and  a  good  citizen." 

Nancy  was  evidently  taken  over  to  Mr.  Walker's 
on  Johnathan's  Creek  six  miles  from  Waynesville. 
This  is  about  eighteen  miles  over  a  mountain  from 
where  Abraham  Enloe  lived.  But  the  girl  was  not 
"cared  for"  at  Mr.  Walker's;  though  he  had  a  part 
in  looking  out  for  her  interest  at  this  time. 

"H.  J.  Beck." 

"Mr.  Beck  was  born  and  reared  and  has  all  his 
life  lived  on  Ocona  Lufta.  He  was  one  of  Abraham 
Enloe's  neighbors,  as  was  his  father  before  him. 
He  is  now  an  octogenarian.  He  is  well-to-do,  intelli- 
gent and  of  upright  character.     He  said: 

"I  have  heard  my  father  and  mother  often  speak 
of  the  episode  of  Abraham  Enloe  and  Nancy  Hanks. 
They  said  Abraham  Enloe  moved  from  Rutherford 
county  here,  bringing  with  his  family  a  hired  girl 
named  Nancy  Hanks.  Some  time  after  he  settled 
here  Nancy  Hanks  was  found  to  be  with  child  and 
Enloe  procured  Hon.  Felix  Walker  to  take  her  away. 


136  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Walker  was  gone  two  or  three  weeks.  If  they  told 
where  he  took  her  I  do  not  now  think  of  the  place. 
"As  to  Abraham  Enloe,  he  was  a  large  man, 
weighing  between  two  and  three  hundred.  He  was 
justice  of  the  peace.  The  first  I  remember  of  him, 
I  was  before  him  in  trials.  In  these  cases  of  dif- 
ference between  neighbors,  he  was  always  for  peace 
and  compromise.  If  an  amicable  adjustment  could 
not  be  effected  he  was  firm  and  unyielding.  He  was 
an  excellent  business  man." 

"C.  A.  Ragland,  Esq." 

Mr.  Ragland  is  a  citizen  of  Missouri  and  a  leading 
attorney  of  the  town  of  Stockton.    He  wrote : 

"In  reply  to  your  letter  to  my  wife  have  to  say: 
About  twelve  years  ago  I  called  on  Col.  T.  G.  Davis 
at  St.  Louis,  Mo.  At  that  time  I  lived  in  Illinois. 
Col.  Davis  was  a  relative  of  mine,  his  mother  having 
been  a  Miss  Ragland  of  Kentucky.  Col.  Davis  was 
also  born  in  Kentucky,  and  was  a  cousin  of  Jeff 
Davis,  President  of  the  Confederacy. 

"Col.  Davis,  having  once  resided  for  a  long  while 
in  Illinois,  the  conversation  naturally  turned  upon 
her  times  and  men.  He  said  he  was  personally  and 
intimately  acquainted  with  President  Lincoln — was 
often  associated  with  him  in  law  cases  before  the 
supreme  court  of  Illinois,  that  they,  as  members  of 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  137 

a  committe  of  the  constitutional  convention  of 
Illinois  drafted  most  of  the  constitution. 

He  said  that  he  knew  the  mother  of  Lincoln; 
that  he  was  raised  in  the  same  neighborhood  in 
Kentucky,  and  that  it  was  generally  understood 
without  question,  in  that  neighborhood,  that  Lin- 
coln, the  man  that  married  the  President's  mother, 
was  not  the  father  of  the  President,  but  that  his 
father's  name  was  Enloe. 

These  facts  I  have  a  distnct  recollection  of." 
">t^y.) 

"D.  K.  Collins." 

"Mr.  Collins  was  born  October  7,  1944.  He  was 
a  lieutenant  of  sharpshooters,  Company  F,  69th 
N,  C.  Regiment.  He  is  the  most  extensive  dry  goods 
merchant  in  the  State  west  of  Asheville.  He  is  an 
excellent  citizen  and  cultured  gentleman.  He  said: 

"The  tradition  is  well-founded.  I  have  been  in 
a  position  to  note  its  bearings,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Nancy  Hanks  lived  at  Abraham  Enloe's  and 
that  the  event  took  place  substantially  as  related 
by  the  men  and  women  who  were  familiar  with  it." 

"Capt.  Wm.  A.  Enloe." 

"Captain  Enloe  was  born  in  Haywood  (now  Jack- 
son) county  and  is  sixty-six  years  of  age.     He  is 


138  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

a  successful  merchant  and  business  man.  He  is  a 
gentleman  of  superior  sense,  modesty,  firmness  and 
integrity.  He  was  captain  of  Company  F,  29th  N. 
C.  Regiment,  commanded  by  Robt.  B.  Vance,  and 
served  through  the  war.  He  has  represented  his 
county  in  the  general  asembly.  He  is  a  grandson 
of  Abraham  Enloe.    He  said: 

"There  is  a  tradition  come  down  through  the 
family  that  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of  President 
Lincoln,  once  lived  at  my  grandfather's,  and  while 
there  became  the  mother  of  a  child  said  to  be  my 
^grandfather  Abraham  Enloe's. 

"One  Mr.  Thompson  married  my  aunt  Nancy, 
daughter  of  Abraham  Enloe,  contrary  to  the  will 
of  my  grandfather;  to  conceal  the  matter  from 
my  grandfather's  knowledge,  Thompson  stole  her 
away  and  went  to  Kentucky;  on  the  trip  they  were 
married.  Hearing  of  their  marriage,  my  grand- 
father reflected  and  decided  to  invite  them  back 
home.  On  their  return  they  were  informed  of  the 
tumult  in  my  grandfather's  household  because  of 
Nancy  Hanks,  who  had  given  birth  to  a  child;  and 
when  my  uncle  and  aunt,  Thompson  and  wife,  re- 
turned to  the  Kentucky  home,  they  took  with  them 
Nancy  Hanks  and  her  child.  This  is  the  family 
.story  as  near  as  I  can  reproduce  it  from  memory. 

"In  1861  I  came  home  from  Raleigh  to  recruit  my 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  139 

company.  On  my  return,  while  waiting  for  the  stage 
in  Asheville,  I  took  dinner  at  what  was  then  the 
Carolina  House.  The  table  was  filled  largely  with 
officers  going  to  and  from  their  various  commands. 
The  topic  of  conversation  seemed  to  be  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

"One  of  the  gentlemen  remarked  that  Lincoln  was 
not  the  correct  name  of  the  President — that  his 
name  was  Enloe  and  that  his  father  lived  in  Western 
North  Carolina.  I  maintained  the  part  of  an  inter- 
ested listener,  and  no  one  suspected  that  my  name 
was  Enloe. 

"After  this,  during  the  war,  and  while  stationed 
in  East  Tennessee,  I  was  handed  a  paper  with  nearly 
a  column  of  what  purported  to  be  a  sketch  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  early  life  in  Kentucky — alleging  that 
his  father's  name  was  Enloe,  and  that  he,  Lincoln, 
was  born  in  Western  North  Carolina." 

"Wesley  M.  Enloe." 

"Mr.  Enloe  was  born  in  1811,  in  Haywood  county, 
N.  C,  and  is  the  ninth  and  only  surviving  son  of 
Abraham  Enloe.  He  resides  on  the  same  farm  and 
in  the  house  where  his  father  lived  when  Nancy 
Hanks  was  banished  from  the  household.  He  is  a 
quiet,  sauve,  intelligent  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
and  a  prosperous  farmer.    He  said: 


140  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

"I  was  born  after  the  incident  between  my  father 
and  Nancy  Hanks.  I  have,  however,  a  vivid  recol- 
lection of  hearing  the  name  Nancy  Hanks  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  family  while  I  was  a  boy. 

"No,  I  never  heard  my  father  mention  it ;  he  was 
always  silent  on  the  subject  so  far  as  I  know. 

"Nancy  Hanks  lived  in  my  father's  family.  I 
have  no  doubt  the  cause  of  my  father's  sending  her 
to  Kentucky  is  the  one  generally  alleged.  The  oc- 
currence as  understood  by  my  generation  and  given 
to  them  by  that  of  my  father,  I  have  no  doubt  is 
essentially  true. 

"My  father  moved  to  this  place  (Ocona  Lufta) 
somewhere  from  1803  to  1808." 

"Rev.  S.  E.  Kennedy." 

Here  is  the  testimony  of  Rev.  S.  E.  Kennedy,  a 
former  minister  of  the  Christian  Church  of  Davis, 
Indian  Herritory. 

The  Davis  Weekly  News,  of  his  home  town,  says 
of  him :  "Rev.  S.  E.  Kennedy  is  pastor  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  here,  and  is  loved  and  esteemed  univer- 
sally by  all  who  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  him. 
He  wrote: 

"My  grandfather  and  grandmother,  John  and 
Fannie  Kennedy,  lived  neighbor  to  Abraham  Enloe 
in  North  Carolina,  and  were  well  acquainted  with 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


141 


both  Abraham  Enloe  and  Nancy  Hanks.    My  grand- 
mother was  born  about  1775.     Her  story  of  the 


iMJ&«J 


The  Rutherford  County  (N.  C.)  bastile  where  "Dicky" 
Hanks,  Uncle  of  Nancy,  was  incarcerated  for  drunkenness 
when  Nancy  was  placed  in  the  family  of  Abraham  Enloe,  of 
Puzzle  Creek.  This  first  jail  stood  out  about  two  miles  north 
of  where  the  town  of  Rutherfordton  is  now  located  and  was 
built  of  logs. 


Enloe-Hanks  embroglio  was  substantially  as  fol- 
lows: The  father  of  Nancy  Hanks  was  a  drunkard 
and  was  so  cruel  to  his  wife  and  children  that  he 


142  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

was  imprisoned  and  made  to  make  shoes  as  a 
punishment.  The  mother  of  Nancy  Hanks  was 
forced  because  of  her  inability  to  support  them  to 
bind  her  children  out.  Abraham  Enloe  took  Nancy 
and  a  man  by  the  name  of  Pratt  took  Mandy. 

"Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pratt  were  kind  to  Mandy,  and 
taught  her  to  card  and  spin  and  weave.  Mandy  did 
well  and  married  Samuel  Henson  and  moved  across 
the  mountains. 

"Abraham  Enloe  became  entangled  with  Nancy 
and  caused  her  to  be  taken  to  Kentucky  and  to  be 
married  to  Tom  Lincoln,  who  kept  a  still-house 
there.  Abraham  Enloe  promised  to  give  Tom  Lin- 
coln five  hundred  dollars,  a  wagon  and  pair  of  mules 
if  he  would  marry  Nancy  Hanks,  but  after  Lincoln 
got  drunk  and  attempted  to  kill  Abrham  Enloe,  they 
compromised,  and  Enloe  gave  Lincoln  a  mule,  a 
mare  and  fifteen  dollars  in  money,  whereupon  Lin- 
coln took  Nancy  and  little  Abe  back  to  Kentucky, 
and  I  never  saw  them  more." 

Mr.  Kennedy  says:  "My  grandmother  lived  to  be 
near  ninety,  dying  about  the  year  1866.  She  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  but  possessed  the  most  per- 
fect memory  I  have  ever  observed.  She  knew 
Abraham  Enloe  before  and  after  they  moved  across 
the  mountains.  Whether  my  grandparents  came 
with  Enloe  when  he  migrated  to  North  Carolina,  I 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  143 


do  not  know.    What  was  meant  by  'across  the  moun- 
tains' I  have  forgotten,  if  I  ever  knew." 

This  Kentucky  story  says  Nancy's  father  was  put 
in  jail.  This  is  an  error  for  Nancy  had  no  legal 
father.  At  this  time  she  lived  in  the  home  of 
"Dick"  Hanks  near  Belmont,  N.  C,  and  the  above 
characteristics  are  said  to  "fit"  "Dicky"  Hanks,  the 
uncle  of  Nancy. 

BERRY  HOWELL 

"Uncle  Berry"  is  a  remarkable  old  colored  man. 
He  is  patriotic  and  deeply  religious.  He  has  raised 
fourteen  children,  ten  sons,  and  registered  eight  of 
his  boys  to  help  Uncle  Sam  save  the  democracy  of 
the  world  in  the  late  war.  He  was  raised  by  Wesley 
Enloe,  youngest  son  of  Abraham  Enloe. 

"Uncle  Berry"  is  held  in  the  very  highest  esteem 
by  the  people  of  Bryson  City,  where  he  resides.  He 
is  about  eighty  years  old  and  is  usually  busy  work- 
ing for  some  of  his  white  friends. 

He  said:  "I  knowed  all  the  Enloes,  the  brothers 
and  sisters  of  my  master,  but  I  never  saw  their 
father,  Abraham,  as  I  can  remember.  But  I  often 
heard  them  speakin'  about  Abraham  Enloe  movm' 
from  Rutherford  county.  When  he  moved  to  this 
county  he  brought  along  a  girl  by  the  name  of 


144  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

'Nancy  Hanker*  an*  she  stayed  in  Enloe's  family 
till  she  was  grown,  when  a  child  was  born  and  they 
named  it  Abraham.  The  people  all  said  that  Enloe 
wuz  its  father  and  they  named  it  Abraham  for  him 
and  that  this  caused  trouble  in  Mr.  Enloe's  home 
and  he  sent  her  and  the  child  to  Kentucky,  where 
Nancy  Hanker  married  a  man  by  the  name  of  Lin- 
coln. My  master  wuz  good  to  me.  I  never  lacked 
for  anything  to  eat  or  wear  an*  if  I  got  in  trouble, 
fightin'  sometimes,  he  would  always  help  me  out. 
He'd  tell  me  to  never  take  anything  that  didn't  be- 
long to  me,  an'  always  be  polite,  but  to  not  let  any- 
body run  over  me  an'  abuse  me.  I  had  lots  of  friends 
among  the  good  white  folks.  Some  of  the  Niggers 
gave  me  a  little  trouble  sometimes.  I'll  tell  ye  how 
it  wuz.  When  we  Niggers  wuz  freed  my  old  master 
came  to  me  one  day  an'  said,  'Berry ;'  an*  I  said  yes, 
master,  an'  he  said,  'now,  you's  a  free  man  now,  an* 
there's  going  to  be  a  lection  soon,  an'  course  you  can 
vote  jus'  same  as  I  can.  Your  vote  counts  jus'  the 
same  as  mine.  You  can  vote  jus'  as  you  please,  but 
I  spec  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket,  an'  course  I'd 
be  glad  if  you  would  vote  like  I  do. 

"Well,  I  thinks  the  matter  over,  an'  I  said  that 
man  has  raised  me  fum  a  little  Nigger  five  year  old, 
an*  he's  been  good  to  me;  he's  clothed  me  an'  fed 
me  an'  given  me  a  good  home,  an'  a  fine  horse  for 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  145 

my  own.  I  love  my  old  master  an*  all  his  folks,  an* 
I  am  not  going  to  kill  my  master's  vote.  This  Nigger 
specs  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket  as  long  as  he 
lives,  an*  I  have  voted  the  Democratic  ticket  all  my 
life  since  that  time. 

"Some  folks  say  a  Nigger  has  no  soul,  but  I  know 
I  have  a  soul,  for  I  have  a  conscience,  an'  know 
right  fum  wrong,  an'  a  brute  has  no  conscience." 

Should  This  Truth  Be  Told  to  The  World? 

It  has  now  been  shown  conclusively  that  other 
writers  had  ventured  to  enter  the  sacred  family 
enclosure  and  peep  behind  the  doors  and  into  the 
closets  for  the  bones  of  a  skeleton,  that  they  had 
learned  was  hid  somewhere  on  the  Lincoln  premises. 

And  a  notable  feature  is  the  fact  that  the  first 
reports  in  regard  to  this  skeleton  are  found  in  the 
original  material  from  which  the  Lincoln  Histories 
and  Lincoln  biographies  were  made  up.  And  these 
facts  were  published  in  the  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines of  that  time  without  contradiction.  These 
articles  in  the  papers  were  a  libel  and  slander  of 
the  parties  concerned  had  they  been  false.  It  is  a 
very  dangerous  thing  to  write  such  a  story  in  the 
papers  if  one  does  not  wish  to  get  into  a  lot  of 
trouble.    Therefore  it  must  have  been  true. 


146 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

There  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  mankind  to 
cover  up  our  human  weaknesses,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  get  a  perfectly  accurate  record  of  any  great  man. 
His  friends  will  be  tempted  to  omit  certain  facts, 
however  important,  which  would  mar  the  picture 
they  wish  to  draw,  while  his  enemies  would  lean  to 
the  other  extreme  of  magnifying  unduly  the  faults. 

But  the  whole  world  is  interested  in  men  of  Lin- 
coln's type.  He  is  esteemed  today  as  few  men  who 
have  lived.  His  picture  now  hangs  upon  the  wall  in 
every  school  house  in  all  the  land.  His  name  has 
long  since  become  a  household  word,  found  on  the 
lips  of  teeming  thousands  of  children  as  they  pass 
to  and  from  their  duties  in  the  school-room.  And 
the  most  loyal  and  patriotic  men  of  our  country, 
from  the  Northern  snows  to  eternal  summer,  all 
point  to  this  man  as  the  most  ideal  of  all  patriots, 
as  the  greatest  of  American  citizens.  Is  it  wrong 
to  let  the  people  know  the  truth  as  to  who  his  father 
was?  Some  have  acted  as  though  it  would  be  an 
unpardonable  sin  to  let  the  facts  be  known.  But 
such  is  not  the  case. 

It  is  no  injustice  to  the  memory  of  this  great  man 
to  tell  who  his  father  was.  In  fact  it  is  really  doing 
him  an  injustice  to  cover  up  the  truth  by  telling  a 
falsehood,  and  hiding  his  real  father  behind  Tom 
Lincoln  as  a  smoke  screen. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  147 

The  subject  of  eugenics  would  prove  very  inter- 
esting and  illuminating,  especially  to  those  who  have 
an  idea  that  something  great  can  come  from  almost 
nothing;  that  the  Latin  axiom,  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit, 
"out  of  nothing  nothing  comes,,,  represents  a  fal- 
lacy. 

But  this  is  true,  and  this  law  will  hold  good  in 
any  kingdom  of  Nature  or  in  the  Spiritual  Universe 
as  well.  Even  the  poultryman  will  tell  you  that  it 
is  impossible  to  raise  Game  chickens  by  breeding  to 
a  common  old  Shanghai. 

The  Lincoln  case  is  paralleled  in  that  distinguish- 
ed Englishman,  J.  L.  Smith,  who  gave  this  country 
over  half  a  million  dollars,  by  means  of  which  was 
founded  the  great  Smithsonian  Institute,  at  Wash- 
ington City.  Until  after  his  graduation  from  Ox- 
ford in  1786,  says  Lord,  in  his  "Beacon  Lights  of 
History/*  "This  remarkable  man  was  known  by  the 
name  of  James  Louis  Macie.  Afterwards  he,  of  his 
own  accord,  chose  the  name  of  his  reputed  father, 
Hugh  Smith,  of  Northumberland,"  although  he  evi- 
dently was  not  a  Smith  at  all. 

STORY  BY  J.  C.  COGGINS. 


During  the  past  century,  there  lived  a  man  in 
the  notheastern  section  of  Buncombe  county,   on 


148  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Bee  Tree  Creek,  North  Carolina,  by  the  name  of 
Berry  H.  Melton.  His  mother  was  an  Enloe,  named 
Martha  Ann,  a  sister  of  Abraham  Enloe,  who  had 
his  nose  bit  off  in  a  fight  with  Thomas  Lincoln. 

This  family  so  closely  related  was  conversant 
with  the  facts  that  caused  the  fight.  And  their 
version  of  it  was  that  Tom  Lincoln  had  whipped 
Nancy  and  little  Abe  unmercifully." 

This  man,  Melton,  was  ninety-six  years  old  when 
he  died,  the  present  writer  conducting  the  funeral 
service  nearly  forty  years  ago. 

Mr.  Melton  was  a  man  full  six  feet  high  or  more, 
and  weighed  about  two  hundred  pounds.  He  was 
of  Scotch  descent,  and  was  a  very  intelligent  man. 

He  built  his  own  mills  and  turning-lathes,  and 
kept  them  in  repair  himself.  With  little  or  no 
school  advantages,  he  became  very  well  educated  for 
his  time ;  surveyed  land,  and  taught  a  short  term  of 
school.  He  could  converse  intelligently  upon  the 
difficult  questions  of  astronomy,  geology,  and  Natu- 
ral Philosophy.  He  had  secured  books  on  these  sub- 
jects and  had  carefully  studied  them. 

He  was  a  deeply  religious  man.  Prayer  meetings 
were  often  conducted  in  his  home.  Some  of  his 
prayers  that  brought  the  house  to  tears  are  still 
remembered.    The  following  amusing  incident,  illus- 


i 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 149 

trating  Mr.  Melton's  booknishness  and  keen  intel- 
lectuality, took  place  in  the  county  courthouse  at 
Asheville,  N.  C. 

Having  been  summoned  as  a  witness  in  a  certain 
case,  and  while  on  the  stand  giving  his  testimony, 
his  elegant  diction  and  heavy  Johnsonean  phrase- 
ology attracted  the  attention  of  the  court  and  Mr. 
Melton  was  asked  if  he  knew  the  meaning  of  the 
big  words  he  had  used.  The  witness  replying  in 
the  affirmative,  chanced  to  let  go  another  verbal 
gem.  This  was  too  much  for  his  Honor,  the  Judge, 
who  immediately  sent  out  for  a  dictionary  and 
turned  school  teacher  for  a  little  while,  firing  the 
biggest  words  in  Webster's  Dictionary  at  Mr.  Mel- 
ton, who  in  the  meantime  had  kept  his  seat  upon 
the  witness  stand. 

The  Judge  was  perfectly  astonished  to  see  this 
mountaineer  dispose  of  his  hard  words  as  easily  as 
a  professional  ball  player  would  handle  a  baseball. 

This  man  was  a  descendant  of  the  same  family  of 
Scotch  school  teachers  from  which  Abraham  Lincoln 
came.  He  was  Lincoln's  first  cousin  and  was  per- 
fectly familiar  with  the  facts,  the  inside  facts  of 
the  Enloe  family  history. 

Within  that  inner  circle  of  relatives,  things  were 
known  and  talked,  sub  rosa,  that  the  people  in  gen- 
eral knew  little  or  nothing  about. 


150  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Mr.  Melton  said  to  me,  that  he  knew  positively 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  Enloe ;  that  there  was 
not  a  drop  of  Lincoln  blood  in  him,  and  that  the 
histories  were  all  wrong  as  to  his  ancestry  and  also 
as  to  the  place  where  he  was  born. 

This  old  man  talked  with  a  fervor  and  positive- 
ness  that  can  only  go  with  the  full  conviction  of 
speaking  the  truth  in  the  face  of  adverse  opinion. 

Upon  being  asked  how  he  knew  all  this,  in  the 
face  of  history  to  the  contrary,  the  old  man,  then 
nearly  ninety  years  old  said:  "Why,  Jim,  I  knew 
Nancy  Hanks  when  she  was  a  girl. 

"We  were  children  together,  and  we  played  to- 
gether many  a  day.  I  knew  her  uncles,  William 
and  "Dick"  Hanks,  just  as  well  as  I  do  you. 

"My  people  came  from  the  same  community  in 
Rutherford  county  where  Nancy  Hanks  was  raised. 
Everybody  spoke  of  her  uncle  as  old  "Dick"  Hanks. 

"He  was  an  habitual  drunkard,  and  would  spend 
every  cent  he  could  get  for  liquor. 

"He  was  put  in  jail,  and  compelled  to  work  for 
the  support  of  his  family.  He  was  a  shoemaker  by 
trade  and  he  made  shoes  in  jail  in  Rutherford 
county.  But  the  income  from  his  work  was  not 
sufficient  to  support  the  family,  and  the  children 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  151 

were  taken  from  'Old  Dick'  and  bound  out  in  dif- 
ferent families. 

"My  uncle,  Abraham  Enloe,  took  Nancy.  She  was 
about  eight  or  ten  years  old  when  she  became  a 
member  of  his  family. 

"Jim,  I'm  telling  you  what  I  know  to  be  true," 
continued  Mr.  Melton.  "And  Nancy  remained  in  my 
uncle's  home  until  she  was  grown. 

"I  visited  my  uncle  many  times  while  Nancy  was 
there.  She  was  a  very  bright  girl,  attractive  and 
good  looking.  She  was  rather  tall  and  her  hair  was 
black. 

"Everybody  loved  her,  and  no  difference  was  made 
between  her  and  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
She  learned  to  read  and  write.  For  uncle  was  a 
man  who  believed  in  education.  He  was  very  well 
educated  for  a  man  of  his  day.  His  people  were 
educated.  Among  his  folks  were  doctors,  lawyers, 
and  school  teachers,  all  descendants  of  Scotch 
teachers. 

"Abraham  Enloe's  sister,  Martha  Ann,  was  my 
mother  and  I  named  younr  aunt  Martha  for  her." 

Moving  to  the  Mountains. 

The  moving  of  the  Enloe's  with  two  or  three  other 
families,  was  an  important  event.  At  that  time 
there  were  very  few  settlers  in  Western   North 


152  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Carolina,  or  that  part  of  the  State  lying  west  of  the 
Blue  Ridge.  That  country  was  inhabited  by  wild 
Indians. 

And  there  were  still  to  be  found  an  occasional 
elk  and  buffalo  and  plenty  of  deer,  bear,  and  game 
of  smaller  size.  There  were  those  who  did  not  mind 
risking  their  scalps  in  an  attempt  to  explore  and 
settle  up  this  wild  country,  as  this  was  then  called. 

In  fact  there  was  plenty  of  such  metal  in  the 
"Old  North  State."  She  had  furnished  the  un- 
daunted Daniel  Boone,  as  a  John  the  Baptist  for 
Kentucky's  settlement  and  civilization;  and  it  was 
the  first  State  in  the  Union,  or  the  Colonies,  to 
come  out  fearlessly  in  its  legislative  assembly  and 
make  a  Declaration  of  Independence  at  Mecklenburg. 

"Several  families,"  said  Mr.  Melton,  "Came  across 
the  mountains  together,  my  uncle  Abraham,  and 
two  or  three  other  families  who  were  neighbors. 

"One  family  would  hardly  risk  going  alone,  on 
account  of  the  wild  Indians,  and  also  so  many  wild 
and  ferocious  animals. 

"They  all  left  Rutherford  county  and  followed  an 
old  Indian  trail  across  the  Blue  Ridge,  crossing  at 
the  point  popularly  known  as  'Hickory  Nut  Gap/ 
a  few  miles  southeast  of  Asheville. 

"They  came  over  in  covered  wagons,  and  their 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


153 


wagons  were  the  first  that  were  brought  across  the 
mountains  into  Buncombe  county. 


They  tied  trees  to  the  rear  end  of  their  wagons  when  they 
went  down  the  very  steep  places  in  the  trail. 

"The  wagons  were  drawn  by  large  oxen,  two  to 
a  wagon.  When  they  came  to  a  very  steep  place  in 
the  trail,  they  would  put  all  six  of  the  oxen  to  one 
wagon,  and  then  all  hands  would  get  behind  and 
push,  and  by  this  means  they  succeeded  in  getting 
over  the  steep  places  in  the  trail. 


154  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

"Upon  coming  to  a  very  steep  incline,  they  would 
cut  down  small  trees  and  tie  to  the  rear  end  of  the 
wagons  to  prevent  a  runaway  down  the  mountains. 

"They  often  found  it  necessary  to  construct 
rough  temporary  bridges  upon  which  they  would 
be  able  to  cross  the  creeks  and  small  rivers. 

"At  night  they  would  build  large  bon-fires  to 
keep  off  the  wind  animals.  There  were  lots  of 
panthers  in  those  days  and  these  cats  were  con- 
sidered bad  property.  They  would  slip  up  behind 
people  and  leap  on  them  when  they  were  not  ex- 
pecting it. 

"My  uncle  brought  with  him  some  very  large 
^ogs,  to  be  a  guard  and  protection  for  his  family. 
These  were  mastiffs  and  bloodhounds,  and  their 
presence  had  a  kind  of  civilizing  influence  upon  a 
community. 

"This  company  stopped  on  what  was  then 
called  'Soco  Creek/  by  the  Indians,  a  few  miles 
southwest  of  Asheville.  Here  they  made  friends 
with  the  Indians,  after  which  they  separated  and 
took  up  land  from  the  State. 

"Uncle  Abraham  then  moved  on  to  a  place  called 
uOcona  Lufta,'  now  in  Swain  county,  near  the  town 
of  Bryson  City. 

"Here  he  built  a  house,  and  made  this  place  his 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  155 

permanent  home.  He  became  well  off.  He  bought 
and  sold  slaves,  raised  mules  and  was  considered 
the  leading  man  of  the  community.  His  wagon 
made  annual  trips  to  Augusta  and  Charleston  for 
salt,  sugar,  coffee  and  other  necessary  articles. 

"He  was  a  magistrate,  knew  a  good  deal  about 
law,  and  from  an  intellectual  standpoint  he  was 
easily  the  leader  of  the  community.  He  was  tall, 
being  about  six  feet  and  two  inches  high. 

Trouble  in  the  Enloe  Home. 

"Yes,  Jim,  I  can  well  remember  the  trouble  in 
the  Enloe  home.  Nancy  was  very  atractive.  My 
aunt,  Mrs.  Enloe,  was  an  Egerton.  She  told  uncle 
that  she  saw  some  things  that  she  did  not  like,  and 
said :  "I  want  you  to  get  another  home  for  Nancy !" 
"Poor  girl.  Nancy  was  not  to  blame  for  the 
trouble.  She  was  to  be  pitied  rather  than  censured," 
said  this  old  man,  reflectively. 

This  meant  for  Nancy  to  leave  the  comfortable 
home  that  had  been  hers  for  a  decade,  to  leave  those 
she  loved — and  Nancy  loved  them  all.  It  meant  a 
parting  never  to  return.  Eventually,  it  meant  her 
death." 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  embarassing  sit- 
uation in  which  this  girl  was  placed  played  its  part 
in  stamping  the  sad  and  melancholy  face  upon  Mr. 


156  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Lincoln.  This  psychological  condition  of  the  mother, 
together  with  the  cruel  treatment  to  which  the 
mother  and  child  were  frequently  subjected  by 
Thomas  Lincoln  because  of  his  jealousy  of  Abraham 
Enloe,  certainly  furnished  sufficient  cause  for  stamp- 
ing this  child's  face  with  a  permanent  sadness. 

One  cannot  help  thinking  how  this  experience  of 
Nancy  Hanks  finds  its  parallel  in  the  very  touching 
story  of  the  girl,  Hagar,  who  had  lived  in  the  com- 
fortable and  pleasant  home  of  Abraham  of  Old 
Testament  times  (Gen.  21:14-18),  which  says, 
"Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the  morning  and  took 
bread  and  a  bottle  of  water  and  gave  it  unto  Hagar, 
putting  it  on  her  shoulder  and  gave  her  the  child, 
and  sent  her  away;  and  she  departed  and  wandered 
in  the  wilderness  of  Beersheba,  and  the  water  in  the 
bottle  was  spent,  and  she  cast  the  child  under  one 
of  the  shrubs,  and  she  went  and  sat  her  down  over 
against  him,  a  good  way  off,  as  it  were  a  bowshot; 
for  she  said  let  me  not  see  the  death  of  the  child, 
and  she  sat  over  against  him  and  lifted  up  her  voice 
and  wept. 

"And  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad;  and  the 
angel  of  God  called  to  Hagar  out  of  heaven,  and 
said  unto  her,  what  aileth  thee  Hagar?  Fear  not, 
for  God  hath  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad  where  he  is, 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 


157 


arise,  lift  up  the  lad,  and  hold  him  in  thine  hand; 
for  I  will  make  him  a  great  nation." 

Congressman  Walker. 

"Uncle's  daughter,  Nancy,  had  run  away,"  said 
Melton,  "and  married  a  man  in  Kentucky  by  the 
name  of  Thompson.       They  lived  just  across  the 


. fe€  L.  °*^mud^MJ^m^dil^^ 


After  Tom  Lincoln  married  Nancy  Hanks  he  became 
jealous  of  Enloe  and  would  take  his  spite  out  in  beating  little 
Abe,  and  when  Nancy  interfered  he  would  beat  her.  "He  was 
very  brutal  in  his  treatment  of  both  Nancy  and  her  child." 


158 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

State  line,  and  that  was  where  Nancy  and  'Little 
Abe*  were  sent. 

"It  was  known  that  Uncle  sent  money  over  there 
for  Nancy's  support,  as  much  as  fifty  dollars  at  a 
time.  And  he  made  an  ocasional  trip  to  see  the  folks, 
and  in  the  meantime  he  built  a  mill  over  there. 

"He  made  an  agreement  with  Tom  Lincoln,  a  dis- 
tiller, that  if  he  would  marry  the  girl,  and  take  care 
of  her  and  the  boy,  he  would  give  him  five  hundred 
dollars,  and  a  wagon  and  team.  Lincoln  married 
her,  but  failed  to  comply  with  the  agreement  with 
Enloe,  in  properly  providing  for  the  couple.  There 
was  no  floor  in  the  house,  and  it  was  reported  that 
she  had  to  sleep  on  a  pine  straw  bed.  Moreover,  he 
was  brutal  in  his  treatment  of  both  Nancy  and  the 
child.  He  was  jealous,  too,  and  would  get  drunk, 
and  take  his  spite  out  in  beating  little  Abe.  And 
when  Nancy  interfered  he  beat  her. 

"Uncle  refused  to  pay  him  the  full  amount,  and 
they  had  trouble.  Lincoln  got  drunk  and  threaten- 
ed to  kill  Enloe,  and  they  got  into  a  fight.  Enloe 
was  a  large,  tall  man  and  Lincoln  was  a  heavy,  mus* 
cular  man.  They  fought  just  like  bulldogs.  Old 
Lincoln  got  Uncle  down  and  bit  off  the  end  of  his 
nose." 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  159 

Tom  Lincoln  Visits  Abraham  Enloe. 

After  the  fight  between  Lincoln  and  Enloe,  they 
"made  friends,"  and  Tom  Lincoln  brought  Nancy 
and  little  Abe  over  the  mountains  to  Enloe's,  now 
of  Swain  county. 

Thomas  recovered  from  his  fit  of  anger  with  En- 
loe, for  we  have  some  evidence  that  he  had  had  a 
drink  or  two  too  much,  and  he  made  this  a  peaceful 
visit.  But  it  had  a  business  side  to  it.  Tom  needed 
that  mare  and  mule  and  a  little  pocket  change  that 
he  was  to  get  from  Enloe  for  taking  care  of  Enloe's 
boy  Abraham! 

The  matter  was  compromised  by  Enloe  paying 
Lincoln  fifteen  dollars  in  money,  and  a  mare  and  a 
mule. 

"After  Abe  Lincoln  became  President,  he  went 
back  to  Kentucky  to  see  the  Thompsons  where  he 
and  his  mother  had  stayed  before  she  was  married. 
He  asked  Mrs.  Thompson  if  there  was  anything  that 
he  could  do  for  her.  She  said  she  didn't  know  of 
anything  that  he  could  do  for  her,  but  if  he  wanted 
to  he  might  do  something  for  her  son.  And  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  gave  this  Thompson  an  important 
office  in  connection  with  Indian  affairs. 

"He  did  this,  nothwithstanding  Thompson  was  a 
Democrat." 


160  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

As  the  lawyer  would  say,  "It  is  prima  facie  evi- 
dence/ this  generous  act  on  the  part  of  Lincoln, 
that  he  was  anxious  to  be  able  to  repay  a  debt  of 
some  special  kindness  of  which  he  had  been  a  bene- 
ficiary in  days  past.  If  he  was  not  able  to  remember 
these  things  himself,  he  doubtless  had  gotten  some 
confidential  statement  from  his  mother  and  the 
neighbors  as  to  what  Mrs.  Thompson  had  been  to 
him  and  his  mother.  In  fact,  the  Thompsons'  was 
doubtless  a  place  of  "Refuge"  when  he  was  a  little 
fellow.  It  was  the  place  where  he  could  go  for 
sympathy  and  love.  For  they  knew  who  he  was. 
Mrs.  Thompson  knew  that  this  was  her  half-brother 
and  when  he  was  hungry  she  fed  him. 

And  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  after 
his  own  mother  died,  that  it  was  his  sister,  this  Mrs. 
Thompson  who  took  him  to  her  home  and  helped 
to  dry  his  tears  and  ease  his  aching  heart;  and  he 
could  not  forget  all  these  things  when  he  became 
the  President  of  the  United  States. 

At  the  close  of  this  patriarch's  talk  out  in  his 
apple  orchard,  he  straightentd  up  and  said,  "Now, 
Jim,  if  you  don't  believe  what  I  say  about  this  Lin- 
coln ancestry,  you  go  home  and  ask  your  mother, 
and  she  will  tell  you  just  what  I  have." 

I  had  been  held  spellbound  for  an  hour,  while  this 
old  white  haired  man  rehearsed  in  an  intensive  and 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  161 

thrilling,  and  at  times  in  a  very  eloquent  manner, 
this  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  true  ancestry. 

No  one  who  ever  knew  this  old  man,  would  for 
one  moment  entertain  the  remotest  idea  that  he  had 
any  selfish  motive  in  giving  this  story. 

My  mother,  I  soon  discovered,  was  familiar  with 
the  above  tradition,  but  had  never  mentioned  it  to 
any  of  her  children.  Upon  being  asked  in  regard 
to  it  she  answered  apologetically,  "Well,  Jim,  the 
old  people  were  all  ashamed  of  it.  But  my  father 
thought  lots  of  his  uncle  Enloe.  He  was  a  man  of 
prominence  and  good  standing,  and  we  considered 
this  a  blot  on  his  name.  Yes,  it's  all  true,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  son  of  Abraham  Enloe.,, 

Writers  and  public  speakers,  at  times,  are  wont 
to  show  how  something  great  can  spring  forth  from 
something  very  insignificant,  and  they  often  point 
to  "Christ  who  was  born  in  a  manger,"  or  "Abraham 
Lincoln  born  in  a  log  cabin,"  as  examples.  But  the 
truth  is,  it  matters  not  so  much  about  the  external 
surroundings  as  it  does  the  internal  nature  of  the 
thing  that  is  born. 

Jesus  was  far  greater  than  man,  not  because  He 
was  born  in  a  manger,  but  because  He  was  the  Son 
of  God.  His  determining  factor  lay  in  the  Family 
Tree  and  not  in  His  cradle ;  His  ancestry  was  equal 
to  the  exalted  life  He  lived,  the  claims  He  made  and 


162 : ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

the  work  He  did  among  men  and  for  men.  And  the 
logical  necessity  demanding  a  supernatural  pedigree 
for  Jesus  is  only  met  in  the  report  of  the  Gospels 
that  such  a  thing  did  really  happen. 

A  Study  in  Psychology. 

We  claim  that  the  same  law  of  psychological  cause 
and  effect  holds  good  in  regard  to  Lincoln  as  any- 
thing else. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  born  book-lover.  He  had 
an  insatiable  appetie  for  books.  In  fact,  some  have 
called  him  "a  glutton  for  books."  There  is  back 
of  him  a  great  vacuum  which  demands  a  book-lover 
as  his  true  ancestor.  The  eternal  laws  of  logic 
compel  us  to  look  carefully  for  some  one  to  fill  this 
vacancy,  to  satisfy  this  great  equation  of  character 
and  intellect.  As  the  man  Joseph  was  not  able 
to  satisfy  the  logical  relationship  demanded  in 
Christ,  so  it  is  also  true  th'at  the  Thomas-Iincoln 
Family-Tree  did  not  raise  the  "Abe  Lincoln"  kind 
of  fruit.  They  were  known  as  Link-horns  in 
Virginia. 

When  called  upon  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Green  soon  after 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  gone  to  Congiess,  Thomas  Lincoln 
is  reported  as  saying:  "I  s'pose  Abe's  still  a-foolin' 
his  self  with  edecation.  I  tried  to  stop  it,  but  he's 
got  that  fool  idee  in  his  head  an'  it  can't  be  got 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  163 

out.  Now,  I  hain't  got  no  edecation,  but  I  git  along 
better  than  if  I  had."  This  despiser  of  books  and 
"edecation"  was  not  the  real  father  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Mr.  Cathey  makes  it  a  point  in  his  book  to  show 
the  "great  strength"  of  the  Enloe  family,  naming 
and  giving  the  pictures  of  many  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  as  Congressmen,  judges,  and 
physicians.  These  all  had  back  of  them  the  old 
Scotch  school  teachers;  and  this  was  the  source  of 
the  intellectual  genius  of  Lincoln. 

Why  Lincoln  Was  Partial  and  Brutal. 

From  the  fact  that  different  authors  say  upon 
good  testimony,  that  Thomas  Lincoln  was  "brutal 
in  his  treatment"  of  this  boy,  although  his  step- 
mother, the  second  Mrs.  Lincoln,  is  quoted  as 
saying — 

"I  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  raised  with  Abe. 
Both  were  good  boys,  but  I  must  say,  both  beingr 
now  dead,  that  Abe  was  the  best  boy  I  ever  saw  or 
ever  expect  to  see."  This  is  strong  corroboration 
of  the  truthfulness  of  the  Buncombe  tradition,  that 
Lincoln  did  not  regard  this  child  as  his  own. 

"Thomas  Lincoln,"  says  Wayne  Wipple,  "was 
moody,"  and  very  "restless."  Had  there  not  been 
enough  in  his  past  life  in  his  experiences  with  En- 


164 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

loe  to  make  a  man  restless?  When  he  looked  into 
the  face  of  Little  Abe  he  saw  the  facsimile  of  the 
man  he  had  fought  with  and  whose  nose  he  had 
bit  off.  When  he  went  out  to  the  shed  to  feed  his 
horse  or  mule,  he  was  again  reminded  of  his  trade 
with  Enloe,  when  he  had  traded  for  his  wife,  Nancy, 
and  got  little  Abe  thrown  in  for  good  measure.  He 
was  no  account  or  he  would  not  have  been  willing  to 
enter  into  such  an  agreement  to  start  with.  Enloe's 
ghost  doubtless  haunted  Tom  Lincoln,  and  drove 
him  to  the  verge  of  an  insane  jealousy. 

Could  there  have  been  an  examination  of  the 
most  painstaking  kind  conducted,  there  would  not 
have  been  found  even  the  smallest  psychological 
germ  of  such  things  as  the  "Gettysburg  Address," 
and  other  great  mental  products  in  the  mind  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  who  looked  upon  "edecation"  as 
a  curse  and  not  a  blessing.  And  offspring  is  mental, 
not  physical. 

According  to  this  story,  the  distinguished  honor 
of  being  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  un- 
desired  by  Thomas  Lincoln,  was  undeserved,  un- 
wittingly and  unworthily  bestowed,  perforce  of  cir- 
cumstances, affording  a  very  striking  example  of 
the  old  Latin  dictum,  that  "some  people  have  their 
honors  thrust  upon  them!" 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 165 

"The  Enloes." 

J.  H.  Cathey  says: 

"Three  Enloe  brothers,  forebears  of  the  family, 
landed  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
in  Maryland.  One  of  these  brothers  settled  on  Lord 
Baltimore's  land,  and  reared  a  family.  The  other 
two  went  from  Maryland  to  South  Carolina  and 
made  their  home  in  York  district. 

"These  old  Enloes  were  school  teachers  by  pro- 
fession, men  of  liberal  education.  From  these  three 
men  have  sprung  a  numerous  progeny,  scattered 
over  Maryland,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  Illinois,  Missouri,  California  and  Texas. 
It  is  remarkable  the  number  of  strong  men  through- 
out this  long  line.  We  fearlessly  invite  any  one 
who  may  feel  skeptical  as  to  this  assertion  to  in- 
vestigate for  himself.  All  down  the  line  from  the 
day  when  the  South  Carolina  grandsires  began  to 
'train  the  young  idea  to  shoot/  to  the  present  when 
they  sit  in  legislatures,  in  Congress  and  upon  the 
bench,  the  Enloes  have  undoubtednly  contributed 
materially  to  the  building  of  the  Republic.  They 
have  marched  in  the  forefront  of  frontier  settle- 
ment, undaunted  by  the  sternest  difficulties.  They 
have  introduced  civil  government  in  the  wilderness, 
and  modestly,  yet  liberally,  contributed  to  the  sup- 


166  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

port  of  its  institutions.  They  have  helped  make, 
construe  and  enforce  the  laws  by  which  they  have 
been  governed.  Wherever  duty  called,  in  peace  or 
war,  they  have  cheerfully  responded.  Wherever 
they  have  dwelt,  they  have  distinguished  themselves 
for  intelligence,  industry  and  probity. 

"Wherever  they  have  planted  themselves,  thrifty 
farmers,  successful  merchants,  physicians,  jurists 
and  legislators  have  sprung  up. 

"Physically  they  are  rather  large,  tall,  slender, 
but  rawboned  as  a  rule,  and  sinewy.  Mentally  they 
are  vigorous  and  alert,  and  throughout  the  line,  in 
an  individual  here  and  there,  there  is  a  vein  of 
natural  humor." 

The  "Link-horn"  Family. 

Mr.  Nat.  R.  Anderson,  of  Rolling  Fork,  Mississippi, 
wrote  the  author,  Mr.  J.  H.  Cathey,  of  Sylva,  N.  C, 
as  follows:  "I  am  a  native  of  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, in  Virginia,  Rockingham  county.  That  State  is 
where  the  Lincolns  sprang  from.  Tom  Lincoln's 
father  migrated  from  there  to  Kentucky.  Many  of 
them  are  still  there.  They  pronounced  the  name 
there  "Link-horn."  I  never  could  understand  how 
so  great  and  good  a  man  as  "Old  Abe"  could  have 
descended  from  such  a  low  breed  and  entirely 
worthless  a  vagabond  as  Tom  Lincoln.    I  have  read 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  167 

most  of  the  lives  of  Lincoln.  The  best  were  by 
Ward  H.  Lamon  and  W.  H.  Herndon,  his  law  part- 
ner, but  these  were  suppressed.  I  am  now  an  old 
man  past  three  score  and  ten. 

"I  remember  most  of  the  stirring1  events  since 
Jackson's  second  term;  all  the  leading  men  and 
measures,  and  notwithstanding  differences  in  our 
party's  affiliations,  I  frankly  confess  that  no  man 
has  interested  me  more,  from  his  strange,  eventful 
and  lowly  life,  than  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"You  are  undoubtedly  due  the  thanks  of  every 
lover  of  truth  and  respectability  in  the  land  in  find- 
ing for  the  immortal  'Rail-splitter'  an  honorable 
paternity  and  strong  and  well  defined  ancestry." 

THE  OLD  ENLOE  DEED. 


We  produce  here  a  copy  of  this  old  deed  made  to 
Mark  Bird  by  Abraham  Enloe  to  a  hundred  and  ten 
(110)  acres  of  land  lying  on  both  sides  of  Puzzle 
Creek  in  Rutherford  county,  North  Carolina.  This 
deed  strongly  corroborates  the  Rutherford  county 
story. 

Book  29-30-31,  page  115. 


168 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


/*s«j  0*4: ***  jci^jfu^-f  *L>  c/'jt  *>?/* 

&*<~.  TTZflZU  fi*/K.^  irr/j  A<>*  #4~»  4*  6^ 

&*~?  4L.  ^f/C<.  f*.  /t/^&A  -  /Sr^>Si,  <£.  7%=. 
.z,'*-*'  9*6  ~~y  //*i  <•« #-  a*^~? 


;Qt/yy^'£-*<"*>S': 


,  /if  J-  ■:  rV  iiit. 


^ 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  169 


WILL  THIS  STORY  BECOME  HISTORY- 


I  have  been  told  that,  though  this  is  a  true  story 
it  cannot  become  history,  because  the  requirements 
now  are  so  rigid,  requiring  at  least  three  eye-wit- 
nesses who  make  affidavit  that  they  had  personal 
knowledge  of  the  facts  and  incidents  recorded. 

Such  a  rule  would  exclude  the  greater  part  of  all 
the  historical  matter  of  the  world  both  Sacred 
and  Profane. 

Strange  that  some  such  rule  is  not  adopted  in  the 
study  of  science  and  applied  to  the  modern  theory 
of  evolution,  requiring  at  least  three  eye-witnesses 
to  swear  that  they  actually  saw  a  monkey,  or  an- 
thropoid ape  translated  into  a  man  with  a  splendid 
intellect  and  a  full-fledged  moral  nature  including  a 
conscience. 

However,  we  feel  that  no  candid  person  can  read 
the  testimony  that  we  offer  in  this  book  and  refuse 
to  give  it  his  full  and  free  endorsement.  The  high 
standing  of  these  witnesses,  their  intelligence,  some 
of  them  of  a  very  superior  character,  demand  an 
impartial  hearing  of  this  case.  It  will  not  down,  it 
can  not  be  set  aside  with  the  wave  of  the  hand.  It 
is  here  to  stay  because  it  is  the  truth!  And  an 
evasion  of  the  simple  truth  for  which  the  people 


170  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

hunger  is  reprehensible  in  anyone. 

Ishmael  was  not  held  responsible  for  being  the 
son  of  Abraham  and  a  servant,  Hagar,  and  if 
Abraham  Lincoln  from  a  little  lower  level  in  the 
strata  of  human  life  and  society  was  able  to  rise  to 
sublimer  heights  than  those  better  born  than  he; 
he  is  worthy  of  more  honor  still !  The  great  demo- 
cratic spirit  of  this  country  has  permitted  "Little 
Abe"  to  attain  without  the  backing  of  a  legal  and 
honorable  ancestry  the  highest  honors  of  our  coun- 
try! Indeed,  his  lowly  humble  birth  has  hung  a 
bright  star  in  the  sky  of  every  ill-born  child  of  our 
glorious  republic  and  bids  him  rise  from  a  "bed  of 
leaves,  or  straw  or  skins  of  wild  animals  to  occupy 
Jthe  highest  seats  of  national  honor! 

THE  GETTYSBURG  ADDRESS. 

By  Abraham  Lincoln. 


iVhen  Abraham  Lincoln  finished  delivering  his 
Gettysburg  address,  no  one  applauded.  The  20,000 
in  his  audience  merely  exclaimed:  "Oh!" — in  sur- 
prise at  the  brevity  of  his  speech.  Accustomed  to 
political  orations,  they  had  settled  themselves  for 
an  uncomfortably  long-winded  talk. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  171 

This  is  the  recollection  of  Mrs.  Rebecca  C.  D. 
Long,  of  Somerville,  Massachusetts,  who  was  raised 
in  Gettysburg,  and  heard  Mr.  Lincoln's  famous 
speech  when  she  was  twelve  years  old.  She  says, 
"In  the  front  of  the  great  stand  were  20,000  men, 
women  and  children,  and  Edward  Everett,  the 
spokesman  of  the  occasion  delivered  an  oration  of 
two  hours  length. 

After  this  long  introductory  tirade,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln rose  slowly  to  his  feet,  and  "said  his  say"  in 
265  words,  the  immortal  Gettysburg  Address.  Isn't 
that  human  nature,  that  long  introduction  by  the 
chairman!  When  he  went  home  he  probably  told 
his  folks  what  a  great  address  he  had  made  at  that 
big  meeting;  that  his  was  the  masterpiece  of  the 
occasion. 

But  great  thought  never  hides  itself  in  a  snow- 
storm of  words.  No  one  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  audience 
realized  at  that  time  that  he  was  hearing  an  im- 
mortal piece  of  oratory;  and  probably  the  finest 
composition  ever  penned  in  the  English  language, 
acording  to  many  competent  critics." 

The  Address. 

Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers 
brought  forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  con- 
ceived in  liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition 


172  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 
whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived 
and  so  dedicated  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on 
a  great  battlefield  of  that  war. 

We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field 
as  a  final  resting  place  for  those  who  here  gave 
their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It  is  al- 
together fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we 
cannot  consecrate — we  cannot  hallow — this  ground. 
The  brave  men  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it  in  a  far  greater  manner  above 
our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little 
consider  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but 
it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us, 
the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  to  the  great  task 
remaining  before  us — that  from  these  honored  dead 
we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which 
they  gave  the  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we 
here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have 
died  in  vain ;  that  this  nation,  under  God  shall  have 
a  new  birth  of  freedom ;  and  that  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  173 

LINCOLN  ON   SOCIAL  AND   POLITICAL 
EQUALITY  OF  THE  RACES. 


The  following  excerpt  is  taken  from  Abraham 
Lincoln's  speech  in  his  debate  with  Douglas  in  their 
great  political  campaign  in  1858.  At  that  time 
some  accused  Lincoln  of  having  too  much  prejudice 
against  color. 

"I  will  say  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in 
favor  of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and 
political  equality  of  the  white  and  black  races ;  that 
I  am  not  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of 
negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  nor 
to  intermarry  with  white  people.  There  is  a  phy- 
ical  difference  between  the  white  and  black  races 
which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two  races 
living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political 
equality. 

"And  inasmuch  as  they  cannot  so  live,  while  they 
do  remain  together  there  must  be  the  position  of 
superior  and  inferior,  and  I  as  much  as  any  man, 
am  in  favor  of  having  the  superior  position  as- 
signed to  the  white  race.  I  do  not  perceive  that 
because  the  white  man  is  to  have  the  superior  po- 
sition, the  negro  is  to  be  denied  everything, 

I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not  want  a 


174  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

negro  woman  for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily  want 
her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  can  just 
let  her  alone.  I  have  never  had  the  least  apprehen- 
sion that  I  or  my  friends  would  marry  negroes  if 
there  was  no  law  to  keep  them  from  it;  but  as 
Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  seem  to  be  in  great 
apprehension  that  they  might,  if  there  were  no  law 
to  keep  them  from  it,  I  give  him  the  most  solemn 
pledge  that  I  will  to  the  very  last,  stand  by  the  law 
of  this  state,  which  forbids  the  marrying  of  white 
people  with  negroes. 

And  in  his  rejoinder  he  added:  "I  am  not  in  favor 
of  negro  citizenship.  My  opinion  is  that  the  dif- 
ferent states  have  the  power  to  make  a  negro  a 
citizen  if  they  choose,  under  the  constitution.  The 
Dred  Scott  decision  decides  that  they  have  not  the 
power.  If  the  state  of  Illinois  had  that  power  I 
should  be  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  it.  That  is  all 
I  have  to  say  about  it." 

DESCRIPTION  OF  NANCY  BY  JOHN  HANKS. 


She  was  a  slender,  symmetrical  woman,  of  me- 
dium stature,  a  brunette,  with  dark  hair,  regular 
features,  and  soft  sparkling  hazel  eyes.  Tenderly 
bred,  she  might  have  been  beautiful ;  but  hard  labor 
and  hard  usage  bent  her  handsome  form,  and  im- 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  175 

parted  an  unusual  coarseness  to  her  features  long 
before  the  period  of  her  death. 

Toward  the  close,  her  life  and  her  face  were 
equally  sad ;  and  the  latter  habitually  wore  the  woe- 
ful expression  which  afterwards  distinguished  the 
countenance  of  her  son  in  repose. 

By  her  family  her  understanding  was  considered 
something  wonderful.  John  Hanks  spoke  reverently 
of  her  high  intellectual  forehead,  which  he  con- 
sidered the  proper  seat  of  faculties  like  hers.  Com- 
pared with  the  mental  poverty  of  her  husband  and 
relatives,  her  accomplishments  were  certainly  great. 
For  it  is  related  by  them  with  pride  and  delight  that 
she  could  actually  read  and  write. 

The  possession  of  these  arts  placed  her  far  above 
her  associates,  and  after  a  little  while  even  Tom 
began  to  meditate  upon  the  importance  of  acquir- 
ing them.  He  set  to  work  accordingly  in  real  ear- 
nest, having  a  competent  instructor  so  near  at  hand. 
And  with  much  effort  she  taught  him  what  letters 
composed  his  name,  and  how  to  put  them  together 
in  a  stiff  and  clumsy  fashion,  henceforth  he  signed 
no  more  by  marking  his  name;  but  it  is  nowhere 
stated  that  he  ever  learned  to  write  anything  else> 
or  to  read  either  written  or  printed  letters. 


176 ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

DESCRIPTION    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    BY 
HERNDON,  LINCOLN'S  LAW  PARTNER. 


Mr.  Lincoln  was  six  feet  four  inches  high,  and 
when  he  left  his  home  for  the  city  of  Washington 
was  fifty-one  years  old,  having  good  health  and  no 
gray  hairs,  or  but  few,  on  his  head. 

He  was  thin,  wiry,  sinewy,  raw-boned;  thin 
through  the  breast  to  the  back,  and  narrow  across 
the  shoulders ;  standing  he  leaned  forward,  was  what 
may  be  called  stooped-shouldered,  inclining  to  the 
consumptive  by  build. 

His  usual  weight  was  180  pounds.  His  structure 
was  loose  and  leathery;  his  body  shrunk  and  shriv- 
eled; he  had  dark  skin  and  dark  hair  and  looked 
woe-struck. 

The  whole  man,  body  and  mind  worked  slowly, 
as  if  it  needed  oiling.  Physically  he  was  a  very 
powerful  man,  lifting  with  ease  400  pounds,  and  in 
one  case  600.  Hence  there  was  very  little  bodily  or 
mental  wear  and  tear  in  him. 

When  he  walked  he  moved  cautiously  but  firmly; 
his  long  arms  and  giant  hands  swung  by  his  side. 
He  walked  with  even  tread,  the  inner  sides  of  his 
feet  being  parallel.  He  put  the  whole  foot  down 
flat  on  the  ground  at  once,  not  landing  on  the  heel. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  177 

Hence  he  had  no  spring  in  his  walk.  His  walk  was 
undulitory,  catching  and  pocketing  tire,  weariness 
and  pain  all  up  and  down  his  person,  and  thus  pre- 
venting them  from  locating. 

The  first  impression  of  a  man  who  did  not  ob- 
serve closely  was  that  his  walk  implied  shrewdness 
and  cunning,  that  he  was  a  tricky  man ;  but  in  real- 
ity it  was  the  walk  of  caution  and  firmness.  In  sit- 
ting on  a  common  chair  he  was  not  taller  than 
ordinary  men.  His  legs  and  arms  were  abnormally, 
unnaturally  long,  and  in  undue  proportion  to  the 
rest  of  his  body.  It  was  only  when  he  stood  up  that 
he  loomed  above  other  men. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  head  was  long,  and  tall  from  the 
base  of  the  brain  and  from  the  eyebrows.  His  head 
ran  backwards,  his  forehead  rising  as  it  ran  back 
at  a  low  angle,  like  Clay's  and  unlike  Webster's, 
which  was  almost  perpendicular.  The  size  of  his 
hat  measured  at  the  hatter's  block  was  seven  and 
one-eighth,  his  head  being  from  ear  to  ear,  six  and 
one-half  inches.  Thus  measured  it  was  not  below 
the  medium  size.  His  forehead  was  narrow  but 
high ;  his  hair  was  dark,  almost  black  and  lay  where 
his  fingers  or  the  wind  left  it,  piled  up  at  random. 

His  cheeks  were  high,  sharp  and  prominent;  his 
nose  was  large  and  blunt,  and  a  little  awry  towards 
the  right  eye ;  his  chin  was  sharp  and  up-curved ;  nis 


178  ,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

eyebrows  cropped  out  like  a  huge  rock  on  the  brow 
of  a  hill,  his  long  sallow  face  was  wrinkled  and  dry, 
with  a  hair  here  and  there  in  the  surface ;  his  cheeks 
were  leathery;  his  ears  were  large,  and  ran  out  al- 
most at  right  angles  to  his  head,  caused  partly  by 
heavy  hats  and  partly  by  nature ;  his  lower  lip  was 
thick  hanging  and  under-curved;  while  his  chin 
reached  for  the  lip  up-curved;  his  neck  was  neat 
and  trim,  his  head  being  well  balanced  on  it;  there 
was  a  large  mole  on  his  cheek,  and  Adam's  apple  on 
his  throat.  Thus  stood,  walked,  acted,  and  looked 
Abraham  Lincoln !" 

LINCOLN'S  LETTER  TO  MRS.  BIXBY. 

(Lincoln's  Heart  in  a  Letter.) 


Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  Nov.  21,  1964. 
To  Mrs.  Bixby,  Boston,  Mass. 
Dear  Madam. 

I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the  War  De- 
partment a  statement  of  the  Adjutant  General  of 
Massachusetts  that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons 
who  have  died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I 
feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  word  of 
mine  which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from  the 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  179 

grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming.  But  I  cannot  re- 
frain from  tendering  you  the  consolation  that  may 
be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the  republic  they  died 
to  save.  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father  may 
assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereavement,  and  leave 
you  only  the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and 
lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to 
have  paid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of 
freedom. 

Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

A.  Lincoln. 


LETTER  FROM  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  TO  HIS 
FOSTER  PARENTS. 


Washington,  D.  C,  Dec.  24,  1848. 
"My  dear  Father: 

"Your  letter  of  the  7th  was  received  night  before 
last.  I  very  cheerfully  send  you  the  twenty  dollars, 
whcih  sum  you  say  is  necessary  to  save  your  land 
from  sale.  It  is  singular  that  you  should  have  for- 
gotten a  judgment  against  you — and  it  is  more  sin- 
gular that  the  plaintiff  should  have  let  you  forget 
it  so  long,  particularly  as  I  suppose  you  have  always 
had  property  enough  to  satisfy  a  judgment  of  that 
amount.    Before  you  pay  it,  it  would  be  well  to  be 


180  „  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

sure  you  have  not  paid,  or  at  least  that  you  can  not 
prove  you  have  paid  it. 

"Give  my  love  to  Mother  and  all  the  connections. 
Affectionately,  your  son, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

(H.  &  W.,  Vol.  II,  321.) 

The  above  letter  shows  that  he,  in  accord  with 
the  conventionalities  of  the  times  called  his  foster 
parents,  Thomas  and  Mrs.  Lincoln,  "Father"  and 
"Mother." 

Of  course  this  lady  was  not  his  mother  in  reality 
— was  no  akin  whatever!  Yet  he  called  her  "Moth- 
er," and  for  the  same  reason  he  called  Thomas  Lin- 
coln "Father!"  He  knew  he  was  no  akin  to  this 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  for  he  was  a  good  sized  boy,  able  to 
carry  a  half  bushel  of  corn  to  mill  seven  miles  before 
his  own  mother  died.  And  we  have  evidence  also 
that  he  never  considered  Thomas  Lincoln  his  actual 
father. 

LINCOLN  ON  THE  SOUTH. 
(Debate  with  Judge  Douglas.) 


Before  proceeding,  let  me  say  that  I  think  I  have 

no  prejudice  against  the  Southern  people.     They 

are  just  what  we  would  be  in  their  situation.  If 

slavery  did  not  now  exist  among  them  they  would 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  181 

not  introduce  it.  If  it  did  now  exist  among  us,  we 
should  not  instantly  give  it  up.  This  I  believe  of 
the  masses  North  and  South.  Doubtless  there  are 
individuals  on  both  sides,  who  would  not  hold  slaves 
under  any  circumstances,  and  others  who  would 
gladly  introduce  slavery  anew  if  it  were  out  of 
existence.  We  know  that  some  Southern  men  do 
free  their  slaves,  go  North  and  become  tip-top  Ab- 
olitionists, while  some  Northern  ones  go  South  and 
become  most  cruel  slave-masters. 

When  the  Southern  people  tell  us  that  they  are 
no  more  responsible  for  the  origin  of  slavery  than 
we  are,  I  acknowledge  the  facts.  When  it  is  said 
that  the  institution  exists  and  it  is  very  hard  to 
get  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  I  can  under- 
stand and  appreciate  the  same. 

I  surely  will  not  blame  them  for  not  doing  what 
I  should  not  know  how  to  do  myself.  Were  all 
earthly  power  given  me  I  should  not  know  what  to 
do  with  the  existing  institution.  My  first  impulse 
would  be  to  free  all  the  slaves  and  send  them  to 
Liberia,  to  their  own  native  land.  But  a  moment's 
reflection  would  convince  me,  that  whatever  of  high 
hope  (as  I  think  there  is)  there  may  be  in  this,  in 
the  long  run,  its  sudden  execution  is  impossible. 
But  all  this,  to  my  judgment  furnishes  no  more  ex- 
cuses for  permitting  slavery  to  go  into  our  own 


182  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

free  territory  than  it  would  for  reviving  the  African 
slave-trade  by  law. 

Equal  justice  to  the  South,  it  is  said,  requires  us 
to  consent  to  the  extension  of  slavery  to  new  terri- 
tories. That  is  to  say,  inasmuch  as  you  do  not 
object  to  my  taking  my  hog  to  Nebraska,  therefore 
I  must  not  object  to  you  taking  your  slave. 

Now,  I  admit  that  this  is  perfectly  logical,  if  there 
is  no  difference  between  hogs  and  negroes. 

But  while  you  thus  require  me  to  deny  the  hu- 
manity of  the  negro,  I  wish  to  ask  whether  you  of 
the  South,  yourselves  have  ever  been  willing  to  do 
as  much?  The  great  majority,  South  as  well  as 
North,  have  human  sympathies,  of  which  they  can 
no  more  divest  themselves  than  they  can  of  their 
sensibility  to  physical  pain. 

These  sympathies  in  the  bosom  of  the  Southern 
people  manifest,  in  many  ways,  their  sense  of  the 
wrong  of  salvery,  and  their  consciousness  that, 
after  all  there  is  humanity  in  the  negro.  And  now 
why  will  you  ask  us  to  deny  the  humanity  of  the 
negro,  and  estimate  him  as  only  the  equal  of  a  hog? 

The  doctrine  of  self-government  is  right — abso- 
lutely and  eternally  right,  but  it  has  no  just  appli- 
cation as  here  attempted.  But  if  the  negro  is  a 
man,  is  it  not  to  that  extent  a  total  destruction  of 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 183 

self-government  to  say  that  he  too  shall  not  govern 
himself  ? 

When  the  white  man  governs  himself  that  is  self- 
government;  but  when  he  governs  himself  and  also 
governs  another  man,  that  is  more  than  self- 
government — that  is  despotism.  No  man  is  good 
enough  to  govern  another  man  without  that  other 
man's  consent.  I  say  this  is  the  leading  principle, 
the  sheet-anchor  of  American  republicanism. 

But  Nebraska  is  urged  as  a  great  Union-saving 
measure.  Well,  I  too  go  for  saving  the  Union.  Much 
as  I  hate  slavery,  I  would  consent  to  the  extension 
of  it,  rather  than  see  the  Union  dissolved,  just  as  I 
would  consent  to  any  great  evil  to  avoid  a  greater 
one.  But  when  I  go  to  Union-saving,  I  must  believe, 
at  least  that  the  means  that  I  employ  must  have 
some  adaption  to  the  end.  To  my  mind  Nebraska 
has  no  such  adaptation.  "It  hath  no  relish  of  salva- 
tion in  it." 

It  is  an  aggravation,  rather,  of  the  only  thing 
which  ever  endangers  the  Union.  When  it  came 
upon  us,  all  was  peace  and  quiet.  The  nation  was 
looking  to  the  forming  of  new  bonds  of  union,  and 
a  long  course  of  peace  and  prosperity  seemed  to 
lie  before  us. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  the  Genius  of  Discord  him- 
self could  hardly  have  invented  a  way  of  again  set- 


184  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

ting  us  by  the  ears  but  by  turning  us  back  and  de- 
stroying the  peace  measures  of  the  past.  The  coun- 
sels of  that  Genius  seem  to  have  prevailed.  The 
Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed;  and  here  we 
are  in  the  midst  of  a  new  slavery  agitation,  such,  I 
think,  as  we  have  never  before  seen. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  restored. 
For  the  peace  of  the  Union,  it  ought  to  be  restored. 
If  by  any  means  we  omit  to  do  this,  what  follows? 
Slavery  may  or  may  not  be  established  in  Nebraska, 
but  whether  it  be  or  not,  we  shall  have  repudiated 
— discarded  from  the  counsels  of  the  nation — the 
spirit  of  compromise;  for  who  after  this,  will  ever 
trust  in  a  national  compromise?  The  spirit  of  mu- 
tual concession,  that  spirit  that  first  gave  us  the 
Constitution,  and  which  has  thrice  saved  the  Union, 
we  shall  have  strangled  and  cast  from  us  forever. 

And  what  shall  we  have  in  lieu  of  it?  The  South 
flushed  with  triumph  and  tempted  to  excess;  the 
North  betrayed  as  they  believe,  brooding  on  wrong 
and  burning  for  revenge. 

One  side  will  provoke,  the  other  will  resent.  One 
will  taunt,  the  other  defy;  one  agresses,  the  other 
retaliates.  Already  a  few  in  the  North  defy  all 
constitutional  restraints,  resist  the  execution  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  even  menace  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  exists. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN 185 

Already  a  few  in  the  South  claim  the  constitu- 
tional right  to  take  and  hold  slaves  in  the  free 
states — demand  the  revival  of  the  slave-trade.  But 
restore  the  compromise,  what  then?  We  thereby 
restore  the  national  faith,  the  national  confidence, 
the  national  feeling  of  brotherhood.  We  thereby 
reinstate  the  spirit  of  concession  and  compromise, 
that  spirit  that  has  never  failed  us  in  past  perils, 
and  which  may  be  safely  trusted  for  all  the  future. 

The  South  ought  to  join  in  doing  this.  The  peace 
of  the  nation  is  as  dear  to  them  as  to  us.  The  mem- 
ories of  the  past  and  hopes  of  the  future,  they 
share  as  largely  as  we. 

It  would  be  on  their  part  a  great  act — great  in 
its  spirit,  and  great  in  its  effect.  It  would  be  worth 
to  the  nation  a  hundred  years  of  purchase  of  peace 
and  prosperity.  And  what  of  sacrifice  would  they 
make?  They  only  surrender  to  us  what  they  gave 
us  for  a  consideration  long,  long  ago;  what  they 
have  not  now  asked  for,  struggled  or  cared  for; 
what  has  been  thrust  upon  them,  not  less  to  their 
astonishment  than  to  ours.  Our  republican  robe 
is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the  dust.  Let  us  purify  it. 
Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white  in  the  spirit,  if  not 
the  blood  of  the  revolution.  Let  us  turn  slavery 
from  its  claims  of  moral  "right"  back  upon  its 
existing  legal  right  of  "necessity."    Let  us  return 


186  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

it  to  its  rightful  place,  the  position  our  fathers  gave 
it,  and  there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  North  and 
South — let  all  Americans — let  all  lovers  of  liberty 
everywhere  join  in  the  great  and  good  work.  If  we 
do  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  saved  the  Union,  but 
we  shall  have  so  saved  it  as  to  make  and  keep  it 
forever  worthy  of  the  saving." 

At  the  close  of  this  debate  between  Lincoln  and 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the  latter  was  so  amazed  at 
the  skill  and  power  of  Lincoln's  masterful  logic  that 
he  came  forward  and  requested  that  they  stop  de- 
bating. This  was  recognized  as  a  great  victory  for 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

LINCOLN'S  ANGELS. 
By  J.  C.  Coggins. 

UfUk       ■ 

Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  a  wonderful  devotion 
for  his  mother,  while  she  lived,  and  after  she  died 
he  revered  her  sainted  memory  till  his  untimely 
death  called  him  hence. 

When  his  parents  were  mentioned  by  him,  he 
passed  upon  his  mother  unstinted  praise. 

He  called  her  heroic,  intellectual,  of  strong 
memory  and  acute  judgment,  and  above  all,  his 
"Angel!" 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  187 

This  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  in  the 
life  of  this  wonderful  man,  that  after  he  could  see 
the  on-coming  tides  of  fame  and  worldly  honor 
rolling  in  upon  him,  he  did  not  forget  his  mother. 
He  knew  something  of  her  hard  life  of  daily  toil; 
doubtless,  without  kindness,  love  or  that  apprecia- 
tion that  makes  the  heavy  burdens  grow  lighter  as 
the  days  pass  on. 

He  had  eaten  with  her  from  the  same  board  of 
poverty ;  he  like  her  had  slept  on  a  "bed  of  leaves," 
and  in  the  deepness  of  the  night  her  moans  from 
the  pinching  cold  broke  through  his  slumbers. 

And  if  there  had  been  cruel  and  abusive  treat- 
ment, as  some  have  said  there  was,  her  son  knew 
it  and  felt  deeply  for  her,  his  mother. 

She  was  a  good  mother!  A  mother  of  faith  and 
love,  and  prayer.  In  fact  she  was  a  wonderful 
mother  to  raise  the  child  she  did.  In  her  married 
life,  she  was  a  woman  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief.  If  we  were  able  to  pierce  the  great  in- 
visible we  too  might  say,  truly,  that  she  became 
her  noble  son's  "Angel."  And  who  knows  but  what 
one  of  the  secrets  of  Lincoln's  greatness  was  due  to 
an  invisible  touch  of  his  "Angel"  of  the  Far-away 
land  ?  It  is  said  that  he  had  his  time  of  "great  quiet 
as  though  he  was  off  holding  communion  with  the 
Invisible." 


188  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

Lincoln  was  a  man  of  deep  piety  and  prayer.  The 
Bible  was  his  greatest  source  of  knowledge.  It  and 
Aesop's  Fables  were  read  by  him  constantly.  Hence 
he  believed  in  a  "hereafter,"  and  that  people  live 
on  after  death. 

There  was  also  another  Angel  to  lend  inspiration 
to  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  the  almost  super-human  task 
to  which  God  had  called  him.  And  this  Angel  was 
his  sweetheart,  Annie  Rutledge. 

This  fine  girl  had  a  wonderful  influence  upon  the 
life  of  this  great  Commoner.  He  loved  Annie  as 
but  few  men  ever  love  a  woman ;  and  she  loved  him 
in  return  with  a  pure  love,  like  the  fragrance  of 
spring-time  flowers !  But  the  early  frost  came  and 
one  chilly  morning  Abraham  Lincoln  awoke  to  find 
his  dearest  Annie,  gone!  Death  had  called  her 
home!  This  was  an  awful  stroke  for  Lincoln,  from 
which  he  recovered  with  the  greatest  difficulty  be- 
coming almost  a  mental  wrick  on  this  account. 

It  is  said  that  Lincoln  would  steal  out  to  her 
grave  and  kneel  down  and  weep,  in  all  the  bitter 
agony  of  a  broken  heart!  Crying,  "Annie,  Oh, 
Annie!"  He  felt  that  he  could  not  live  without 
her,  whose  fair  picture  was  enshrined  in  his  heart. 
And  he  continued  to  see  her  in  his  dreams,  and  he 
heard  her  sweet  voice  as  it  were  in  the  songs  of  tfie 


A.  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  189 

birds  out  in  the  woods,  in  seclusion.  Yes,  she  too 
became  his  "Angel"  in  that  glorious  Land  of  the 
Unsetting  Sun. 


190  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 


CERTIFICATES. 


By 
Mr.  C.  C.  Boone,  a  relative  of  Daniel  Boone,  and  Cor- 
nelius Melton,  Grandsons  of  B.  H.  Melton. 
Mr.  C.  C.  Boone. 

Mr.  C.  C.  Boone  is  62  years  old  his  next  birthday. 
He  is  a  grandson  of  B.  H.  Melton  and  was  reared 
on  Bee  Tree,  N.  C,  in  Bumcombe  county.  He  now 
resides  at  Black  Mountain,  N.  C. 

Mr.  Boone  was  one  of  the  best  public  school 
teachers  in  Buncombe  county  for  several  years  and 
has  been  for  years  in  the  employment  of  the  United 
States  mail  service.  He  makes  the  following 
statement. 

"To  whom  it  may  concern: 

This  is  to  certify  that  I  have  just  finished  mak- 
ing a  careful  perusal  of  a  manuscript  by  Doctor 
J.  C.  Coggins,  which  will  soon  appear  in  a  book 
entitled,  'Abraham  Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian/ 

With  reference  to  the  testimony  of  my  grand- 
father, B.  H.  Melton,  concerning  the  Abraham- 
Enloe-Nancy  Hanks  episode,  I  take  pleasure  in  cor- 
roborating the  authenticity  of  this  story  as  re- 
lated here  by  Dr.  Coggins. 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  191 

My  grandfather  was  so  certain  of  his  positive 
personal  knowledge  of  these  facts  relating  to  the 
unwritten  history  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  that  he 
often  discussed  these  things  with  his  intimate 
friends. 

Signed, 


Black  Mountain,  N.  C,  May  9,  1925. 


Mr.  Melton. 

Mr.  Cornelius  Melton,  also  a  grandson  of  B.  H. 
Melton,  who  furnished  the  data  for  the  Buncombe 
county  tradition,  was  also  formerly  a  school  teacher 
of  prominence  in  said  county  and  for  many  years 
has  been  connected  with  the  Asheville,  N.  C,  post- 
office.    Mr.  Melton  makes  the  following  statement. 

"To  whom  it  may  concern: 

This  is  to  certify  that  I  have  often  heard  the 
facts  related  by  my  father  and  grandfather  that 
are  brought  out  in  the  book  by  Doctor  Coggins  en- 
titled 'Abraham  Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian/  My 
grandfather,  B.  H.  Melton,  lived  to  be  a  very  old 
man,  being  96  years  old  when  he  died.    He  was  a 


192  .  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— 

man  of  remarkable  memory  and  was  usually  very 
correct  in  his  statements.  In  regard  to  what  he 
had  to  say  about  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  would  say  that  he 
was  very  positive.  It  was  a  matter  of  personal 
knowledge  with  him.  Since  he  spent  a  great  deal 
of  his  time  at  his  uncle  Enloe's  home,  and  though 
small,  knew  the  girl  Nancy  Hanks  intimately.  This 
book  presents  doubtless  the  most  correct  statement 
of  the  case  ever  given  to  the  reading  public. 


Signed, 


A  NORTH  CAROLINIAN  193 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
COUNTY  OF  RUTHERFORD. 

Personally  appeared  before  me  this  the  11th  day 
of  December,  1926,  J.  C.  Coggins,  who  being  first 
duly  sworn  deposes  and  says:  That  he  is  the  author 
of  the  foregoing  story  in  the  book  entitled  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian,"  that  he  has  read 
the  foregoing  story  and  that  the  matters  therein 
stated  are  true  of  his  own  knowledge,  except  as  to 
those  matters  stated  on  information  and  belief  and 
as  to  those  matters  he  believes  it  to  be  true. 

J.  C.  COGGINS. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  11th 
day  of  December,  1926. 

ALICE  GEER,  Notary  Public. 

My  commission  expires  April  20,  1928. 


194  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN- 

IMPORTANT  ANNOUNCEMENT. 

This  author,  acting  upon  the  wonderful  evidence 
recently  acquired,  has  taken  the  initiative  in  secur- 
ing options  on  the  land  out  at  "Lincoln  Hill,"  Ruth- 
erford County,  near  Bostic,  for  the  purpose  of  lay- 
ing out  a  large  park  to  be  known  as  "Lincoln  Hill 
Park,"  and  would  be  glad  to  find  some  one  of  means 
in  sympathy  with  such  a  development  which  would 
include  the  erection  of  a  suitable  hotel  on  these 
grounds  destined  to  become  of  national  interest. 

THE  END. 


*J& 


•h 


